China's Newest Carrier Rocket Fails in Debut Mission
upstart writes in with an IRC submission for RandomFactor:
China's newest carrier rocket fails in debut mission:
The debut mission of Kuaizhou 11, the newest in China's carrier rocket fleet, failed on Friday, according to its maker.
The rocket blasted off at 12:17 pm at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China's Gobi Desert to send two small satellites to two different orbits. During its flight, some abnormalities emerged and resulted in failure, China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, one of the nation's major space contractors, said in a statement, adding that engineers are investigating the incident.
A Kuaizhou 11 is 25 meters tall, and has a diameter of 2.2 meters. With a liftoff weight of 78 metric tons, the rocket will be able to place a 1-ton payload into a sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 700 kilometers, according to CASIC.
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