Tianlong 3 booster static fire test lifts off instead
Tianlong 3 booster static fire test lifts off instead
Scott Manley video, looks like the hold down claps may have ripped the bottom off the booster, allowing it to take off.
Absolutely bonkers, they were testing that thing so close to population. There are residential areas within about 1km/mile from the test site. In one of the videos, it sounds like the blast wave destroyed some window. So, even if that thing would have only exploded during the test, it would have caused harm in those areas. Luckily, it landed on an empty area.
The CCP has been dropping booster stages into populated areas for decades. It’s nothing new. It’s effectively standard practice for them. Also, note that none of what I said disagrees with the fact that most other nations consider this sort of thing to be wildly dangerous.
Just last week they crashed a hypergolic first stage crashing on/near a village. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/24/china/china-rocket-debris-falls-over-village-intl-hnk/index.html
I could never figure out why they do it. You want to be far south and have an open ocean to the east of the launch site.
Why are they not launching from Hainan or somewhere on the south coast, west of Hong Kong?
What makes it a "SpaceX Clone", is it because it's a reusable rocket?
That and kerosene fuel and engine configuration (9 engines). Grid fins and landing legs etc.
The fact that any headline with SpaceX in it gets more attention.
Genuinely crazy situation, I don't think that's ever happened before. Either they underestimated the thrust they had, or they saved money on hardware. Possibly calculated shear force for the full stack instead of just the booster. Somebody is definitely fired.
They must have bought the couplings on Temu.
When AliExpress is just too expensive.
You gotta calculate the uggas AND the duggas.
How do you even handle that? Do they load an actual flight program for these tests, or does it just go off uncontrolled until range safety hits the destruct button? (Do they even have range safety and a destruct button?)
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