China says Long March 7A rocket launch failed after flight anomaly

The rocket blasted off at 8:02 p.m. Beijing time (1202 GMT), state news agency Xinhua said, adding that the mission was unsuccessful and the cause was under analysis and investigation.China's National Space Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, commenting on a post about the failed launch on X, wrote "rockets are insanely hard." Many private and state-owned Chinese firms are racing to close the gap with SpaceX."I hope they have a speedy recovery," he added.Jonathan McDowell, an honorary professor at Durham University and a member of the Center for Space Environmentalism, said launch video showed the rocket was completely destroyed at relatively low altitude and velocity, meaning neither the payload nor debris reached orbit.Monday's failure was the Long March 7A's first since its maiden flight in March 2020, when an in-flight malfunction caused the mission to fail.The rocket returned to flight successfully a year later and completed over a dozen successful flights before Monday's mission, based on Chinese launch records.PART OF THE SAME SERIES AS CHINASAT-4AA report by China National Radio, later removed from a page hosted by the Baidu search engine, identified the payload as Zhongxing-4B, or ChinaSat-4B, and the launcher as the Long March 7 modified rocket, another name for the Long March 7A.The satellite is part of the same series as ChinaSat-4A, launched in 2024, according to an assessment by Reuters of the available evidence. China described that satellite as providing voice, data, radio and television transmission services.Such high-orbit communications satellites can relay broadcast programming and telecommunications over large areas, including remote locations beyond the reach of terrestrial networks, but it was not immediately clear whether ChinaSat-4B had the same role, customers or capabilities.The Long March 7A is a medium-lift rocket designed for high-orbit missions.FAILURE COULD TRIGGER CHECKSThe failure could trigger checks of other Chinese launches if investigators identify a problem involving shared components, manufacturing or Wenchang launch operations.China is preparing for the Chang'e-7 lunar mission at Wenchang. Chinese authorities have officially said Chang'e-7 is planned for launch in the second half of 2026, but launch observers have identified a possible window late this month. The mission's Long March 5 rocket and spacecraft are at the site.Chang'e-7 will explore the Moon's south pole, including permanently shadowed craters that may contain water ice.It will use a Long March 5, a larger rocket that is different from the Long March 7A.(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Eduardo Baptista; Editing by William Maclean, Barbara Lewis and Stephen Coates)