Watch moment Chinese Elon Musk-style SpaceX knock-off rocket EXPLODES in botched landing in stunning drone footage
STUNNING drone footage has captured the moment a Chinese SpaceX knock-off rocket exploded in a huge fireball during a botched landing
The rocket, inspired by Elon Musk‘s reusable Falcon 9, was attempting to land vertically, but failed terribly after crashing in its final stage.
Deep Blue Aerospace said it conducted what it called a “high-altitude” test flight of its Nebula-1 rocket.
The test flight was going fine initially, but a sudden technical error just before landing forced the shuttle to crash and explode in a massive blaze.
Stunning footage shows the rocket trying dramatically trying land in a vertical position.
But as soon as it reached the launchpad, the landing systems failed and the thrusters stopped working – and the rocket plunged to the ground in a fireball crash.
Nebula-1 rocket could only reach an altitude of 3 miles before crashing at the Ejin Banner Spaceport in Inner Mongolia.
The Chinese startup company said the shuttle was able to complete 10 out of 11 tests but failed at the last stage.
This is not the first Chinese rocket to try the ambitious vertical take-off and landing, achieved successfully by Musk’s SpaceX.
Under dictator Xi’s leadership, China has been brewing ambitious plans to become the leader of the global space rush.
CHINA’S THREATENING SPACE AMBITIONS
The country spent roughly £11.2billion on its space programme in 2023, according to Statista.
While China was late to the first round of the space race, Beijing is investing heavily in becoming the second nation to put humans on the Moon by 2030.
The Chinese-owned Tiangong space station was completed in late 2022, and has been permanently manned since then.
China has doubled the number of satellites it has in orbit since 2019, according to the US Defence Intelligence Agency.
Experts also fear that China’s monster network of tracking satellites could snoop on Western military operations.
Washington and Beijing currently have the most developed plans for securing separate permanent bases on the Moon, out of any other country in the world.
And fears are China, if it succeeds in making a giant leap ahead of the US, could threaten aggression in space.
A series of non-binding bilateral agreements called the Artemis Accords have been signed between the US and other nations to assure peace in space and on other planets.
However, China has stayed out of the agreement, indicating a potential threat from the communist country.
Nasa chief Bill Nelson, who has been outspoken about his fears surrounding China’s activities in space, said: “My concern would be if China got there first and said, ‘This is our territory, you stay out’.
“Obviously you don’t want to interfere with each other but don’t declare that this whole territory is suddenly yours.”
China’s military presence in the South China Sea signals how the country might behave on the lunar surface, Nelson has previously claimed, which would breach the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
The country is also developing giant spy balloons and hypersonic missiles.
China's race to the moon
By Sayan Bose, Foreign News Reporter
CHINA successfully landed its Chang’e-6 lunar probe on the moon’s far “dark side” – completing a major step in a world-first mission.
Dramatic footage captured the moment the space lander touched down at the lunar south pole at -183C to collect lunar samples.
The landing is a major milestone in the country’s ambitious space program which managed to retrieve rock and soil samples from the moon’s rarely-explored far side.
China has become the first nation to do so – and is now in a powerful position in the space race where players like the US, Russia, India and Japan are relentlessly competing.
But China is also said to be developing weapons which would be able to destroy, disable, or hijack satellites that the US military relies on to operate around the world.
Astrophysicist and space scientist Prof Martin Barstow said China, the US, and other global powers are desperate to lay claim to the Moon’s resources – including water on its “dark side”, which could be used to fuel rockets and to help colonise the Moon.
He told The Sun: “The Chinese are very interested in exploration of the Moon. A lot of it’s scientific, not necessarily commercial.
“Because of global power politics, the US look across at China and think, ‘Well, we can’t actually just leave them to it.’
“There are other interests, though. The US is interested in going to the Moon for long-term interests in exploring Mars, developing technologies that will help that, but doing it in an environment which is much closer to us.”
Beijing has devoted “significant resources” to rapidly growing its space program over the past decade, stated the US Department of Defence’s 2023 China Military Power Report.