Beijing: Rocket manufacturing start-up in China once again suffered a launch failure, resulting in the destruction of three satellites of a commercial group for global weather forecasting and earthquake warning. The 24-meter solid-fuel rocket Hyperbola-1, built by the company iSpace, was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s Gobi Desert on Thursday.

Fourth stage malfunction

According to the Hong Kong-based ‘South China Morning Post’, the company said, “The first, second and third stages of the rocket launched normally, but there was a problem in the fourth stage and the launch mission failed.” The company said that after a detailed investigation, the specific reasons for the failure of the mission will be announced as soon as possible. This rocket has the capacity to deliver 300 kg payload to a sun-synchronous orbit located at a distance of 500 km. It was carrying Yunyao-1 weather satellites 15, 16 and 17 for Tianjin-based Yunyao Aerospace Technology Company. The satellites could not reach orbit.

Know the full plan

According to the South China Morning Post, Yunyao Aerospace Technology planned to launch about 40 satellites this year to complete its 90-satellite Yunyao-1 constellation by next year. A Yunyao Aerospace representative told the Tianjin Daily in January, “Our constellation will break the foreign monopoly and provide high-resolution, ultra-precise and weather monitoring and earthquake early warning services to countries involved in the Belt and Road initiative.”

Also know

In 2019, iSpace became China’s first private rocket company to reach Earth orbit with Hyperbola-1. But since then, the rocket has failed on three consecutive occasions. The problems included damage to the first-stage steering fin by falling insulation foam and a fuel leak in the second-stage altitude control system. Earlier this month, rocket maker Space Pioneer said one of its powerful rockets crashed after an “unintentional launch” due to a structural error during testing.