China successfully transported an earth-observing satellite into space on Monday using a Long March 4B rocket. On the contrary, what didn’t go as smoothly is the boosters landing, which was about to crash at school. However, fortunately, the crash site happened to be a bit distant from the school’s premises, and thankfully the incident didn’t take any lives.
The booster’s first stage came crashing down as the videos and reports of the incident testify. The rocket was launched at 1:57 pm Beijing time from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center.
As per the information from “Space.com,” the 4B rocket happened to launch an observation satellite, which is capable of taking high-resolution pictures that demonstrate attributes as small as three feet and is called the Gaofen 11 satellite.
According to Chinese media, the satellite was launched to have supervision of city planning, road networking, crop estimations, disaster prevention and would mostly be used for land surveys at large. This satellite will join in service with other satellites already functioning as a part of the “China High-Resolution Earth Observation System.”
After the release of official images of the transporting rocket launch, all the new relevant content is based on amateur footages of the base structure crashing down.
Large plumes of orange smoke are seen in the footages rising to the sky near Lilong village in Shaanxi province. The point in question here is that why would a launch take place so near to the population and making it even worse, launching near a local school.
Usually, after such a launch takes place, the debris falls in the barren lands; however, this time around, you can hear children making noise in the background of the videos made by the ones witnessing the scene. Hence, the booster also crashed nearby a place where it could have costed lives.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation was behind building the Gaofen 11 satellite, and the Shanghai Academy Of Space Flight Technology built the transporting 4B rocket, respectively.
The launch that took place on Monday was the 40th for China within this year. The number is exclusive of the commercial launch service providers who sufficiently aid their missions themselves.