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Laura Zhou

China has cancelled almost all of its rocket launches at the country’s busiest space port after two failures at other sites and signs of a long-awaited lift-off for a lunar supercarrier.
The Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported on Friday that nearly all the rocket launches scheduled next month for the Wenchang space centre in the southern province of Hainan had been cancelled.
“Only the test flight for a new type of rocket on February 11 [remains],” the Changsha-based newspaper quoted a space port staff member as saying.
No official reason was given, but in a social media post, travel agency Muxi Holiday said three scheduled launches on February 9, 19 and 24 had been cancelled, forcing changes to trips to view the events.
The launches have become a tourist drawcard in Hainan and internet users had complained online that their plans to view the launches had been abruptly called off.
A hostel in the township of Longlou on the island’s east coast suggested on its social media account that the February 11 launch could be related to the Long March-10A rocket.
The heavy-lift rocket is expected to be central to the country’s crewed lunar landing programme. A photo purportedly taken on Saturday and posted online showed a massive white object positioned vertically on a launch pad.


Chinese authorities usually announce successful launches once they have taken place.
But China’s space ambitions have taken two big blows with the failure of two rocket launches last Saturday.
In the first, a state-owned Long March-3B rocket blasted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan province only to malfunction during the third stage, according to China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation.
Hours later, a Ceres-2 rocket launched by private firm Galactic Energy from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Inner Mongolia crashed back to Earth on its maiden flight.
The cause of the Ceres-2 failure was still under investigation.


China’s aerospace industry has grown rapidly in recent years and the country has made it a national priority to become a leading space power.
According to the China National Space Administration, the country conducted a record 92 launches last year, sending more than 300 satellites as well as crewed missions into orbit, state broadcaster CGTN reported.
There were also two failures, both of which occurred in December. A Zhuque-3 reusable rocket, developed by private company LandSpace, crashed near the planned recovery site and a Long March-12A, the first state-owned reusable rocket, also failed its first recovery stage.
The Long March 10A heavy-lift rocket is designed to be partially reusable and mainly for future low Earth orbit crew and cargo transport to the Tiangong space station.
It will also play a key role in building the China-led International Lunar Research Station, a base near the moon’s south pole that China aims to establish with Russia and other partners by 2035.
This year the Long March-10A carrier rocket is expected to send the Mengzhou-1 uncrewed spacecraft to the Tiangong space station on a resupply mission.
The Long March-10 series completed its first and second-stage static fires in August and September, raising expectations of further tests soon. These would include static fires of a full stage, a low-altitude flight test or an in-flight escape test.

After the dual failures last week, state media said the public should tolerate “occasional defeats” as the industry engaged in “an unprecedented high-density launch cycle”.
“When ‘successful launches’ become routine, people seem to forget the inherent high risks of space endeavours,” state-run China News Service said in an opinion piece.
“Looking globally, setbacks in space launches are not unique to China and since last December, rockets from Japan, South Korea, and India have all encountered failures.
“Public sentiment that ‘only success is acceptable’ does not benefit the long-term progress of space endeavours.
“Cultivating a society that tolerates setbacks is essential to prevent the industry from becoming too conservative – avoiding the pitfall of abandoning progress due to isolated failures – and to create the necessary space for transformative innovation.”


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There are signs online that the launch window could remain be open for another test of a planned lunar heavy lifter


There are signs online that the launch window could remain be open for another test of a planned lunar heavy lifter.


China National Space Administration (CNSA)

China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation

China cancels rocket launches after failures – but will the Long March-10A still lift off?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}There are signs online that the launch window could remain be open for another test of a planned lunar heavy lifter

There are signs online that the launch window could remain be open for another test of a planned lunar heavy lifter