Watch: Chinese rocket explodes into a fireball 85 seconds after lift-off

China's Long March 7A rocket exploded less than 90 seconds into flight, footage on social media shows, causing it to lose an unknown payload. Video shows the rocket bursting into a fireball in the sky. The Long March 7A lifted off at around 5:30 pm IST on Monday (August 10) in Wenchang, Hainan island. Airspace closure notices had been issued in advance. The footage circulating on social media was captured by an amateur. It shows the launch near the coastal spaceport and an explosion around 85 seconds into the flight.

China has officially yet to confirm the failure, with the cause also yet to be ascertained. A report about the launch was carried by State broadcaster China National Radio (CNR) that identified the payload as Zhongxing-4B. These satellites are believed to be for military communications. It is also not clear whether the failure will affect any future missions.

According to Space News, the satellite series targets a geosynchronous orbit using the Long March 7A. The rocket is increasingly replacing the older, hypergolic Long March 3B for these missions. It debuted in March 2020, which also ended in an explosion. However, since then, the launcher has sent a series of successful rockets into orbit. The Tianlian-3 (01) satellite was its latest exploit that was sent towards GEO in late July.

China's fourth failed rocket in 2026

The standard Long March 7 for low Earth orbit sends cargo to the Tiangong space station once every eight months. China has another rocket, Zhuque-3, scheduled for launch on August 10. The failed rocket was China’s 56th orbital launch attempt in 2026, and the fourth one to have failed. These include Long March 3B, the first flight of the Ceres-2 solid rocket in January, and the Tianlong-3 rocket in early April, which was also taking its debut flight.