Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Elon Musk sympathises with China as satellite-carrying rocket explodes seconds after launch

The failure of the Long March 7A came six years after its maiden flight in March 2020, when an in-flight malfunction made the mission to fall through.

• August 11, 2026
China’s rocket prepared to launch a satellite into orbit exploded 85 seconds after liftoff on Monday. A viral video showed the Long March 7A rocket erupting into a fireball as it blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan. The state news agency Xinhua said the rocket blasted off at 8.02 p.m. Beijing time (1202GMT), attributing the failure to a flight anomaly. It added that the cause of the failure was under investigation. The failure could force China to check other launches should investigators trace the problem to shared components, manufacturing or Wenchang launch operations. Commenting on the development, Elon Musk stated, "Rockets are insanely hard. There is a reason for the idiomatic expression. I hope they have a speedy recovery." The failure of the Long March 7A came six years after its maiden flight in March 2020, when an in-flight malfunction made the mission to fall through. satellite-carrying rocket explodes
Satellite-carrying rocket explodes

China’s rocket prepared to launch a satellite into orbit exploded 85 seconds after liftoff on Monday. A viral video showed the Long March 7A rocket erupting into a fireball as it blasted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site on the island of Hainan.

The state news agency Xinhua said the rocket blasted off at 8.02 p.m. Beijing time (1202GMT), attributing the failure to a flight anomaly.

It added that the cause of the failure was under investigation.

The failure could force China to check other launches should investigators trace the problem to shared components, manufacturing or Wenchang launch operations.

Commenting on the development, Elon Musk stated, “Rockets are insanely hard. There is a reason for the idiomatic expression. I hope they have a speedy recovery.”

The failure of the Long March 7A came six years after its maiden flight in March 2020, when an in-flight malfunction made the mission to fall through.

China’s launch records showed that the rocket returned to flight successfully a year later and completed many successful flights before its latest mission on Monday.

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