Experts to investigate glitch in Long March- 5 rocket launch

China on Sunday night launched the Long March- 5 Y2, the country’s largest heavy- lift carrier rocket, to send China’s heaviest satellite, but unfortunately the mission was failed, and investigation of the failure is on the way.

According to the Xinhua News Agency, an anomaly occurred during the flight of the rocket, which blasted off at 7: 23 pm on Sunday in the Wenchang Space Launch Center in South China’s Hainan Province. Following the failure, the experts will be organized to investigate and analyze the reasons.

Other countries have also experienced failures on heavy- lift rocket’s launch. The US’ Falcon 9 and Europe’s Ariane 5 were all suffered failures due to various technical reasons.

The rocket was tasked to send the Shijian- 18 communi- cation satellite into orbit, the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense said on Saturday, Xinhua reported.

The Long March- 5 Y2, China’s biggest heavy- lift carrier rocket, stands 57 meters tall, and has a liftoff weight of 870 tons, and the satellite Shijian- 18, as the heaviest Chinese satellite, weighs 7.5 tons.

“Long March 5 series is made for China to send space probes to Jupiter and other planets within the solar system,” Wang Jianming, a orbit designer at China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology’s department for overall design, told the Global Times on Sunday.

China has scheduled eight launches of Long March- 5 in the coming years for the nation’s lunar probe, manned space station and Mars probe missions, according to the Xinhua report.