Chinese Long March rocket explodes 90 seconds after liftoff
The failure was the “workhorse” rocket family’s second this year, as Beijing races to achieve launch parity with the US.
A Chinese Long March rocket carrying a communications satellite exploded 90 seconds after liftoff on Monday, marking the second failure of the workhorse rocket family in 2025, as Beijing intensifies its efforts to match the US in launch capabilities. The mission, which would have represented a record 12-day interval between launches, was intended to accelerate China's space race with Washington.
Despite China's technological advancements, the country still lags behind the US in terms of launch capacity, having launched only 315 tonnes of payload in 2025 compared to over 2,700 tonnes by American commercial operators. Former NASA administrator, now a Trump administration official, has predicted that China's taikonauts would land on the Moon before US astronauts.
Brief written by urgent.news from Semafor's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
