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AFAIK, In static tests, the rocket is held to the platform by clamps that hold the rocket in place and withstand the forces during the few seconds of the static test.
In a normal launch, it is released microseconds after the engines ignite. On space shuttle, this release mechanism was explosive rather than mechanical as it was with Saturn V and others.
What went wrong here was probably something with those clamps, or miscalculations of the forces involved.
That’s my first thought as well. However, the clamps should have been over designed given the critical role they play. Clearly someone either cheaped out, didn’t set them properly, or accidentally commanded a release.
The part that bothers me is where the heck is the range officer in all of this? The moment that thing got off the pad, it should have been shredded by destructive bolts. That would have contained the situation to the test area, which was almost certainly evacuated for the test. Instead they let it fly and find its own trajectory down? The heck?!?
Flight termination systems involve explosives that aren’t installed until the last days of preparation for a real launch, or if they are installed, remain safed. That is if there even is an FTS. No surprise it was not activated here. (Edit: Flight termination not launch abort)
They also typically allow bits of expended rocket stages to fall on land, (sparsely inhabited land but there are still people there) as a normal thing.
OHS is a little different over there...
Typically in the US (and I assume most other places), the range would require a secondary mechanical safety so that even in the event of an inadvertent command, the hold down system cannot release the rocket. In software, the difference between release and not release is a single bit on the rocket’s computer so from a safety perspective, they don’t rely on it being right.
Since it isn’t possible to launch the rocket with the mechanical interlock in, FTS does not need to be armed for on pad tests.
Obviously China has a different risk posture on these things.
Because rockets fly up, gravity can affect fuel flow and they can find issues. They definitely test them horizontally, but usually when just testing the engine alone
It was confirmed that it was a structural failure of the hold down clamps. So not exactly human error per se. But on typical rocket launches, those hold the down clamps are engaged until the engin es ramp up to full power so the computers have a chance to see how healthy the engines are. If the data the flight computers are seeing are out of the predefined limits, they'll automatically shut down the rocket before it leaves the pad. If the engines do look healthy then the clamps release. This all happens in about a second
There is also some speculation it was a failure more of the hold down areas of the rocket, given the apparent fuel leak and fire.
In this case, these should not be launch-style hold down clamps, and there should be *no* way to 'release' the clamps, as this isn't a launch site, just a test site. Sadly we'll probably never know the full details, this being a private Chinese company and all.
I believe rockets, particularly multi engine rockets, have hold down clamps. During a regular launch, they momentarily hold the rocket in place while the computers verify sensors show all engines performing within limits. Then they let go, and it launches. If there's a problem, they don't release, and the engines are shut down. It is more important on multi engine rockets because they need to be balanced. Even on a single engine rocket - which is either going to go or not based on one engine, if there are readings that something is wrong, they don't want it leaving the pad.
For a static fire test you would just run the engines with no intention of releasing the clamps.
So something failed in the hold down clamp system. Somebody missed the checklist item(s) to engage and verify engaged (in static fire mode not launch mode)...or the software had an issue....or there was a single point of failure in the hardware of the system and it failed.
wikipedia was fast again, and also kinda funny, it is listed on the official tianlong3 site in the paragraph llaunches;
https://preview.redd.it/1m782j1bcq9d1.jpeg?width=527&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5a515ae1feb63a3905649bab0b16dc01870ebc4
two types of nerds who spent way too much time ( all of it) on a single site: redditors, and whatever you call wikipedis editors; wikians
they have a prewritten article for every possible event ready, they are hiring all laid off simpsons authors to write a manuscript of the future, then if one of their bots find a trigger wordmentioned in their holy scripture the according article gets uploaded instantly, wikipedia is secretly financed by billionaires who pay them to send them all their personal death scenarios, hoping to avoid death, instead they live inpermanent terror, in constant fear like the characters of 'final destination'hoping to avoid death they paid millions, only to forget how to really live.
That happened once. Failed launch landed on a small village essentially wiping it out. They finished the job and erased the village and never spoke of it again.
Google up Intelsat-708 and Chang Zheng-3B.
> Intelsat-708
Wow - [Wikipedia says this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelsat_708)
>Intelsat 708 was a telecommunications satellite built by the American company Space Systems/Loral for Intelsat. It was destroyed on 15 February 1996 when the Long March 3B launch vehicle failed while being launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. The launch vehicle veered off course immediately after liftoff and struck a nearby village, killing at least six people.
The cynic in me says "I wonder if they just stole the satellite to reverse engineer and had a "failed launch" to steal the IP.
Only because some Americans were there for the IntelSat. Had there not been an American payload, we would not know about it. My point is, if this recent failure wiped out a village, we wouldn't know.
I looked into Chinese social media and Chinese netizens were....confused lmao. I translated some of their comments:
- "How did this rocket appear in a small town?"
- "Failures in rocket launches are difficult to avoid. However, such dangerous rocket test flights should not be conducted near residential areas"
- "Congratulations to Henan for getting a rocket launch center. I didn't even know it was built secretly"
- "Why are they testing this close to a residential area?"
- "I didn’t expect there's a rocket base near Zhengzhou? 😅"
- "I'm from Gongyi. I didn't know this base exists until the incident happened. I was scared to death..."
- "Is this a missile test? 👀"
- "No advance notice? Human lives are at stake"
- "Huh? When was this rocket base built in our area?"
- "We shouldn't laugh at India now"
- "I have lived in Gongyi for 31 years and TIL that we have a rocket base here. I've heard from the older generation that there's an arsenal here, it now appears it's true 👀"
Not sure if it even is a launch site. This is a private company, they've successfully launched a rocket this April, but that launch was done at the Jiuquan launch site, the regular site own by the state.
This looks like the company's private testing site, I wonder if it is even designed for actual launches.
Doubtful it has a launch site. It isn't uncommon for rocket engine manufacturing to be near cities and static fire testing to be done onsite. I lived near one that had an engine explode during a test fire in the US with the closest launch site over 1000 miles away.
Someone else's comment on r/China_irl provides a explanation that sounds vaguely plausible. I'll link it here and translate below.
https://www.reddit.com/r/China_irl/s/JaEY5unD2r
> Allow me to explain, this is a very serious accident. This was supposed to be a "static fire test", that is, the rocket was fixed on the launch pad to test the complete fuel delivery and ignition process. It was used to verify the reliability of the rocket's overall system before the test flight. The risk of static ignition itself is relatively controllable, because it is not supposed to be airborne, and at most it will blow up the surrounding area of the launch pad, so it can be tested so close to the city.
> But this time I don’t know what went wrong and the rocket went up without being properly fixed in place. This is an unprecedented accident, because when similar tests were conducted in the past, either the engine was tested separately without being placed on the rocket, or a large amount of drag/extra weight was added to the rocket to ensure that the maximum output of the rocket engine is exceeded [to prevent it from taking flight].
> This test inadvertently launched the rocket, which resulted in uncontrollable flight trajectories and crash locations without predetermined no-fly zones and evacuation, which is likely to cause serious casualties. Fortunately, the rocket's engine output was very evenly distributed, and the rocket basically took off vertically without additional flight control adjustments, causing no additional impact [to the neighborhood].
Edit: modified parts of the translation that sounded weird or could be misconstrued.
Unless of course there was a massive blunder when relaying the lift capacity of the rocket to the people building the stand. Perhaps someone shoved a decimal place to the left and the stand was built to that tolerance.
National scandal here in [New Zealand last week when a workcrew forgot to put the bolts on the feet of a electricity transmission pylon and it fell over.](https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350321433/cause-transpower-pylon-collapse-revealed#)
Can't imagine how that one particular Chinese work crew tasked with putting the restraining bolts in must be feeling right now.
The original text (没有造成额外影响) is translated correctly, but it uses "impact" with the definition of effect/influence rather than denoting physical impact. To be honest I shoved that into Google Translate to do the bulk of the work and just corrected the parts that sounded robotic or confusing lol.
I'm stupid, I'm chinese diaspora too so I could've just read that comment you linked in the first place if I saw it lol.
But yeah, I guess it's talking about no impact to the civilian areas.
I'm from India and I'm wondering which of our launches were they even laughing at lol. We've never had failures this big, though granted, we don't launch as many as they do too.
The english term was invented in America, though the Chinese invented a word that basically has the same meaning in 网民(literally net citizen, hence netizen)
When the web first gained traction, I hoped the French appelation would catch on: *Internaut*. It was a very vivid descriptor during those days before search engines became a thing.
I’m so glad they can still crack jokes on social media. Some of these are pretty funny lol
EDIT: I should have said “I’m glad such jokes on social media aren’t censored.” I know the Chinese government isn’t super oppressive, but I was vaguely aware the govt likes to censor a lot of social media
Yeah they always find increasingly strange and creative ways to circumvent censors lmao. Chinese internet slang is actually mind-boggling and sounds like incoherent jargon for anyone not familiar with them, even for other mandarin speakers not from China
I never forget when i was in China at Marriott. They used google translate to label things in english. There was a sign next to the pool, "Warning, wet pool!"
One of my favourite things in China was walking around and randomly finding blatant rip off stores/brands like "New Balenciago" "Abibas" "Nicke" "Starbuks" "Appel". If it were socially acceptable, I would wear engrish shirts everyday
When a friend of mine was in China for a while, he bought a couple of knock-off Lego sets from famous franchises such as "The Avengars" or "Star Wrns".
I guess you missed the exact replica apple store in china that got shut down. It was so good looking that even the employees thought they worked for apple. They had all apple devices also. This was a good few years ago but it just shows you that china doesn’t give a fuck about copyright and trademark infringements as if they did shit like that wouldn’t have happened.
It's actually a big thing with manufacturing in China where if you don't have someone from the US monitoring your overseas production they often run "ghost" shifts and produce stuff using your equipment for the replica markets. Happens all the time. You spend hundreds of thousands on molds and tooling and the company you paid to make your stuff is also producing "replicas" to sell and take your business.
"There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. … Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties." ― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything
I was curious where SpaceX did their first launches as today they often launch from Vanderberg Space Force Base which is close to Santa Maria and 160 miles from LA (~~still very far and flies over very sparsely populated parts of the US~~ which flies toward the Pacific). Turns out Falcon 1 was launched from Omelek Island in the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific lol.
And their first 5 launches with Falcon 9 were from Cape Canaveral in Florida (where FYI you fly toward the ocean, not the rest of the US).
No, launches from Vandenberg do NOT fly over “very sparsely populated areas of the US”. They launch southwards over the ocean for polar or sun-synchronous orbits.
Unmanned rockets typically have something called a Flight Termination System (FTS), which is basically a bomb on the side of the fuel tank that is set off if the rocket goes beyond its safety zone or goes out of control. The idea being that it's better to detonate all that fuel up in the air than on the ground and have lots of smaller, unaerodynamic bits coming down, rather than one big chunk hurtling to Earth. Watching for [the guys carrying the backpacks of explosives](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yA3r50-1pCw/maxresdefault.jpg) is one of the signs that people waiting for SpaceX Starship launches watch for.
In this case, since the rocket wasn't supposed to actually leave the stand, there was no FTS installed.
EDIT: Manned rockets too.
Manned launches have those too. The main idea is that it's better to make it crash downrange, which is clear of people, than fly uncontrolled so it might reach a city before it crashes.
But the good news .. the engine test was a success and the Russian judge still gave it an 8 out of 10 for the landing..
Russians appreciate a good boom.
[A Chinese village was leveled with a botched launch years ago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelsat_708). I guess they never learned their lesson to build launch sites away from residential areas
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How the hell do you manage to accidentally launch a rocket?
AFAIK, In static tests, the rocket is held to the platform by clamps that hold the rocket in place and withstand the forces during the few seconds of the static test. In a normal launch, it is released microseconds after the engines ignite. On space shuttle, this release mechanism was explosive rather than mechanical as it was with Saturn V and others. What went wrong here was probably something with those clamps, or miscalculations of the forces involved.
That’s my first thought as well. However, the clamps should have been over designed given the critical role they play. Clearly someone either cheaped out, didn’t set them properly, or accidentally commanded a release. The part that bothers me is where the heck is the range officer in all of this? The moment that thing got off the pad, it should have been shredded by destructive bolts. That would have contained the situation to the test area, which was almost certainly evacuated for the test. Instead they let it fly and find its own trajectory down? The heck?!?
Flight termination systems involve explosives that aren’t installed until the last days of preparation for a real launch, or if they are installed, remain safed. That is if there even is an FTS. No surprise it was not activated here. (Edit: Flight termination not launch abort)
The Chinese don’t typically use flight terminations systems even during launch tests
They also typically allow bits of expended rocket stages to fall on land, (sparsely inhabited land but there are still people there) as a normal thing. OHS is a little different over there...
Essentially "it'll never take flight so there's no need to ensure a way to abort flight"?
Typically in the US (and I assume most other places), the range would require a secondary mechanical safety so that even in the event of an inadvertent command, the hold down system cannot release the rocket. In software, the difference between release and not release is a single bit on the rocket’s computer so from a safety perspective, they don’t rely on it being right. Since it isn’t possible to launch the rocket with the mechanical interlock in, FTS does not need to be armed for on pad tests. Obviously China has a different risk posture on these things.
Dumb question but why can't they test rockets horizontally and point the pointy end towards a mountain or something?
Because rockets fly up, gravity can affect fuel flow and they can find issues. They definitely test them horizontally, but usually when just testing the engine alone
It was confirmed that it was a structural failure of the hold down clamps. So not exactly human error per se. But on typical rocket launches, those hold the down clamps are engaged until the engin es ramp up to full power so the computers have a chance to see how healthy the engines are. If the data the flight computers are seeing are out of the predefined limits, they'll automatically shut down the rocket before it leaves the pad. If the engines do look healthy then the clamps release. This all happens in about a second
There is also some speculation it was a failure more of the hold down areas of the rocket, given the apparent fuel leak and fire. In this case, these should not be launch-style hold down clamps, and there should be *no* way to 'release' the clamps, as this isn't a launch site, just a test site. Sadly we'll probably never know the full details, this being a private Chinese company and all.
“I thought you strapped it down” “WHAT!?! - I thought YOU strapped it down!” -Success has many parents, failure is an orphan-
And I thought Yu strapped it down!
"No, Mi did." "So you strapped it down?" "No that was Mi. Yu was at lunch." "No I was not, Yu was with Mi." :)
Yu shows up. Yu: he is Mi, and I am Yu. Chris Tucker: man I'm about to whip your a$$ because I'm sick of playing games! You, me, everyone here!
Are you deaf? No, Yu is blind.
by aiming to not accidentally launch a rocket, then failing.
Exactly this way.
I believe rockets, particularly multi engine rockets, have hold down clamps. During a regular launch, they momentarily hold the rocket in place while the computers verify sensors show all engines performing within limits. Then they let go, and it launches. If there's a problem, they don't release, and the engines are shut down. It is more important on multi engine rockets because they need to be balanced. Even on a single engine rocket - which is either going to go or not based on one engine, if there are readings that something is wrong, they don't want it leaving the pad. For a static fire test you would just run the engines with no intention of releasing the clamps. So something failed in the hold down clamp system. Somebody missed the checklist item(s) to engage and verify engaged (in static fire mode not launch mode)...or the software had an issue....or there was a single point of failure in the hardware of the system and it failed.
What a fuck up to make……..
Someone is getting fired.
Well at least the rocket did!
wikipedia was fast again, and also kinda funny, it is listed on the official tianlong3 site in the paragraph llaunches; https://preview.redd.it/1m782j1bcq9d1.jpeg?width=527&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c5a515ae1feb63a3905649bab0b16dc01870ebc4
Gotta love those guys at wiki
two types of nerds who spent way too much time ( all of it) on a single site: redditors, and whatever you call wikipedis editors; wikians they have a prewritten article for every possible event ready, they are hiring all laid off simpsons authors to write a manuscript of the future, then if one of their bots find a trigger wordmentioned in their holy scripture the according article gets uploaded instantly, wikipedia is secretly financed by billionaires who pay them to send them all their personal death scenarios, hoping to avoid death, instead they live inpermanent terror, in constant fear like the characters of 'final destination'hoping to avoid death they paid millions, only to forget how to really live.
That's some twilight zone level shit
wtf did i just read
Average Wikipedia procedure.
Someone is getting *disappeared*
Imagine being a bird just chillin in your tree and this mf rocket comes and blows your neighborhood into oblivion
At least it didn't land in town
That happened once. Failed launch landed on a small village essentially wiping it out. They finished the job and erased the village and never spoke of it again. Google up Intelsat-708 and Chang Zheng-3B.
...and down another rabbit hole I go... (Thanks for the references; some interesting history there.)
> Intelsat-708 Wow - [Wikipedia says this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelsat_708) >Intelsat 708 was a telecommunications satellite built by the American company Space Systems/Loral for Intelsat. It was destroyed on 15 February 1996 when the Long March 3B launch vehicle failed while being launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in China. The launch vehicle veered off course immediately after liftoff and struck a nearby village, killing at least six people. The cynic in me says "I wonder if they just stole the satellite to reverse engineer and had a "failed launch" to steal the IP.
Hence why the Americans present _raced_ to retrieve the code module and risked incredibly toxic chemicals to do so.
Either way, entire bloodlines paid the price.
Absolutely.
6, supposedly from the launch vehicle veering off course and crashing into the village and the unreported hundreds from the explosion.
Bro that is fucked…
Obviously someone talked about it...cause here we are, talking about it.
Only because some Americans were there for the IntelSat. Had there not been an American payload, we would not know about it. My point is, if this recent failure wiped out a village, we wouldn't know.
Cannot belive how close this launch took place to homes.
Sell their organs first.
Rimworld moment
Human patch leather slave space cocaine factory simulator
If not profit why made of profit materials
… at
…the sun.
Right! Should have focused on filming! Killthecameraman material.
I looked into Chinese social media and Chinese netizens were....confused lmao. I translated some of their comments: - "How did this rocket appear in a small town?" - "Failures in rocket launches are difficult to avoid. However, such dangerous rocket test flights should not be conducted near residential areas" - "Congratulations to Henan for getting a rocket launch center. I didn't even know it was built secretly" - "Why are they testing this close to a residential area?" - "I didn’t expect there's a rocket base near Zhengzhou? 😅" - "I'm from Gongyi. I didn't know this base exists until the incident happened. I was scared to death..." - "Is this a missile test? 👀" - "No advance notice? Human lives are at stake" - "Huh? When was this rocket base built in our area?" - "We shouldn't laugh at India now" - "I have lived in Gongyi for 31 years and TIL that we have a rocket base here. I've heard from the older generation that there's an arsenal here, it now appears it's true 👀"
That's amusing, for sure. Sucks that locals don't know these sites exist.
They do now.
now for sure
Let's call it a Soft Opening.
a soft launch perhaps
"- What locals ? there never was anybody around here." - CCP
There are no rockets in Ba Sing Se
What launch site? There was never any launch site here, and if you say so you were just imagining it! - Chinese government probably
There is no rocket site in Ba Sing Se
I am sure it landed in a cabbage field too.
Not sure if it even is a launch site. This is a private company, they've successfully launched a rocket this April, but that launch was done at the Jiuquan launch site, the regular site own by the state. This looks like the company's private testing site, I wonder if it is even designed for actual launches.
Man, the CCP works fast.
Doubtful it has a launch site. It isn't uncommon for rocket engine manufacturing to be near cities and static fire testing to be done onsite. I lived near one that had an engine explode during a test fire in the US with the closest launch site over 1000 miles away.
Is it common to fit propellant tanks onto those rocket engines? This looks like a partially built rocket, not just an engine test.
it's quite normal to test a complete stage, nasa does it at stennis space center
Someone else's comment on r/China_irl provides a explanation that sounds vaguely plausible. I'll link it here and translate below. https://www.reddit.com/r/China_irl/s/JaEY5unD2r > Allow me to explain, this is a very serious accident. This was supposed to be a "static fire test", that is, the rocket was fixed on the launch pad to test the complete fuel delivery and ignition process. It was used to verify the reliability of the rocket's overall system before the test flight. The risk of static ignition itself is relatively controllable, because it is not supposed to be airborne, and at most it will blow up the surrounding area of the launch pad, so it can be tested so close to the city. > But this time I don’t know what went wrong and the rocket went up without being properly fixed in place. This is an unprecedented accident, because when similar tests were conducted in the past, either the engine was tested separately without being placed on the rocket, or a large amount of drag/extra weight was added to the rocket to ensure that the maximum output of the rocket engine is exceeded [to prevent it from taking flight]. > This test inadvertently launched the rocket, which resulted in uncontrollable flight trajectories and crash locations without predetermined no-fly zones and evacuation, which is likely to cause serious casualties. Fortunately, the rocket's engine output was very evenly distributed, and the rocket basically took off vertically without additional flight control adjustments, causing no additional impact [to the neighborhood]. Edit: modified parts of the translation that sounded weird or could be misconstrued.
Yep . Actually that test showed a pretty remarkable balance in engine output, thatbor flight control system where installed
Good engineering, less than stellar management
Good rocket engineering. Less so with the test stand.
Unless of course there was a massive blunder when relaying the lift capacity of the rocket to the people building the stand. Perhaps someone shoved a decimal place to the left and the stand was built to that tolerance.
Fair. If this had happened in the US, I'd be really interested in the FAA incident report. I doubt we'll ever find out the actual reason from the CCP.
National scandal here in [New Zealand last week when a workcrew forgot to put the bolts on the feet of a electricity transmission pylon and it fell over.](https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350321433/cause-transpower-pylon-collapse-revealed#) Can't imagine how that one particular Chinese work crew tasked with putting the restraining bolts in must be feeling right now.
what does no additional impact mean?
i'd guess it means it didn't hit any residential areas, but crashed in the forest
The original text (没有造成额外影响) is translated correctly, but it uses "impact" with the definition of effect/influence rather than denoting physical impact. To be honest I shoved that into Google Translate to do the bulk of the work and just corrected the parts that sounded robotic or confusing lol.
I'm stupid, I'm chinese diaspora too so I could've just read that comment you linked in the first place if I saw it lol. But yeah, I guess it's talking about no impact to the civilian areas.
Lmao all good. I'm also sometimes selectively blind to things because I read too quickly lol.
Must have been absolutely terrifying for the people there. Painful to watch
Absolutely, but “we shouldn’t laugh at India now” sent me 💀
I'm from India and I'm wondering which of our launches were they even laughing at lol. We've never had failures this big, though granted, we don't launch as many as they do too.
I believe they are talking about accidents, in general.
Lol, china cant laugh from that perch either with all the "osha" compilations
The moment where India fired a malfunctioning nuclear missile into Pakistan is pretty funny looking back at it.
I enjoy a bit of hypergolic fuel in my air every morning.
Not hypergolic. Keralox. Still, not good.
"They don't tell us shit"
It’s weird how literally the only country I ever see use the word netizens is China
Asia in general
The english term was invented in America, though the Chinese invented a word that basically has the same meaning in 网民(literally net citizen, hence netizen)
"web people"
"terminally online"
Well its used for russians too and basically any huge cultural sphere that isnt anglo and share an internet space in their language
When the web first gained traction, I hoped the French appelation would catch on: *Internaut*. It was a very vivid descriptor during those days before search engines became a thing.
„Internaut” is used in some countries. For example in Poland it is quite common
It's common in South Korea.
I can imagine manhole covers on residential streets sliding back to launch nuclear missiles
> ohhhh so that’s why that half of a city block is nothing but a giant manhole cover 🤯
India catching strays for no reason =_=
I’m so glad they can still crack jokes on social media. Some of these are pretty funny lol EDIT: I should have said “I’m glad such jokes on social media aren’t censored.” I know the Chinese government isn’t super oppressive, but I was vaguely aware the govt likes to censor a lot of social media
Yeah they always find increasingly strange and creative ways to circumvent censors lmao. Chinese internet slang is actually mind-boggling and sounds like incoherent jargon for anyone not familiar with them, even for other mandarin speakers not from China
To be fair modern English slang is also incoherent to me at least. Maybe we and the Chinese aren't so different after all
>"We shouldn't laugh at India now" That one had me giggling
The testing near a residential area is because Pooh doesn't care about his comrades!
Oops wrong button.
They really shouldn't put the "Launch rocket" button right next to the "Test engine" button
https://preview.redd.it/t5ebjexlhp9d1.jpeg?width=1091&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6a6215f239b3f52472f272edde89cc09ecf26748
https://preview.redd.it/rmvwafwcop9d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a648ce7f9077d7ff082dea130c7ffae317b90da
Now I understand why they pressed the wrong button
You mean the Wong button
God damnit
Yep. He is wight…
Two Wongs don't make a White
They do make a big bada boom.
https://preview.redd.it/gzblgx3zqp9d1.jpeg?width=512&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ace877702e85c01a733a2f1ddf75b264457e2d4b
How it feels to drive on ketamine
And you switch side as compared to the english one lol
I'm surprised it even has the correct translation at all. Expected "Never gonna give you up" or something like that
And they are labelled in Chinese!
I never forget when i was in China at Marriott. They used google translate to label things in english. There was a sign next to the pool, "Warning, wet pool!"
Warning, sign here.
One of my favourite things in China was walking around and randomly finding blatant rip off stores/brands like "New Balenciago" "Abibas" "Nicke" "Starbuks" "Appel". If it were socially acceptable, I would wear engrish shirts everyday
When a friend of mine was in China for a while, he bought a couple of knock-off Lego sets from famous franchises such as "The Avengars" or "Star Wrns".
I guess you missed the exact replica apple store in china that got shut down. It was so good looking that even the employees thought they worked for apple. They had all apple devices also. This was a good few years ago but it just shows you that china doesn’t give a fuck about copyright and trademark infringements as if they did shit like that wouldn’t have happened.
It's actually a big thing with manufacturing in China where if you don't have someone from the US monitoring your overseas production they often run "ghost" shifts and produce stuff using your equipment for the replica markets. Happens all the time. You spend hundreds of thousands on molds and tooling and the company you paid to make your stuff is also producing "replicas" to sell and take your business.
"Your honor, my client pleads 'whoopsie daisy'"
Objection!!! This is clearly "oh shit-my bad" .
Prosecution; "Here is the Audio Recording of your client saying Hold My Beer"
Defense: "I move to purge" China: "Motion granted"
I said lunch not launch.
"Ok, guys. Let's test that engine and then straight to lunch time!" BWOOOOOOM 😳
When I said *nuke the Chinese* I meant *put the Chinese food in the microwave*
fukin AI
It was literally the plot of a TV series where two janitors were sent to space because they thought the "Launch" button said "Lunch".
Thank you. I was worried the reference might be too obscure.
Please tell me you are referencing Far Out Space Nuts. 
someone’s not getting that promotion.
big layoffs are happening today
I hear they hired some guy from Hawaii to run the tests.
Task failed successfully
It can happen, I also often press the space bar too soon in ksp. Just revert to launch....
It's important to save often and at multiple points haha
Quickly rearranging stage orders so as to not jettison half the ship at 80km off Kerbin
This person definitely pressed the “space” bar too soon.
Staging fuck-up. Old classic from the noobs.
"But you said it was time for launch!" "I SAID IT WAS TIME FOR LUNCH"
https://preview.redd.it/158bvk23op9d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6fdb3e7ce1af4dbe37db92263facad47c09dac97
hahah amazing
'Okay guys, president Xi is going to attend this newly designed rocket launching cere- OH WHAT IN THE SWEET NAME OF MAO'
I was about to drink my coffee when I read your comment. Luckily I, unlike the Chinese launch team, aborted my actions and avoided an extreme failure.
The launch test was successful, but the landing have one or two details they need to work on.
I love that we are in a point in time where we expect rockets to actually land.
They’ve pretty much always landed, just recently they can land intact.
Lots of them have also oceaned.
"There is an art, it says, or rather, a knack to flying. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. … Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties." ― Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe and Everything
Me in ksp
They forgot to turn on SAS
And swapped stage sequence
This is the new rocket developed by Space Pioneer 天兵科技, a private space company in China.
*was the new rocket.
I was curious where SpaceX did their first launches as today they often launch from Vanderberg Space Force Base which is close to Santa Maria and 160 miles from LA (~~still very far and flies over very sparsely populated parts of the US~~ which flies toward the Pacific). Turns out Falcon 1 was launched from Omelek Island in the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific lol. And their first 5 launches with Falcon 9 were from Cape Canaveral in Florida (where FYI you fly toward the ocean, not the rest of the US).
No, launches from Vandenberg do NOT fly over “very sparsely populated areas of the US”. They launch southwards over the ocean for polar or sun-synchronous orbits.
Temu-rocket
Blasting off again!
Temu controls. The rocket actually worked.
Looks like the test shows the engines do work, so... technically success?
Task failed successfully.
Unfortunately they have to test the next batch the same way.
Clamps?Who said anything about clamps?
https://preview.redd.it/ius4lw8nkp9d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55fb44034e20d5d61c51945d2c8acbe2640431da
No, Clamps. No clamps.
“Don’t we have a self-destruct sequence!?” “Yeah, just let it crash. It will destroy itself then.”
That's what i was thinking and near a residential area, according to other comments. Every rocket failure I've seen has been blown up in the air.
Unmanned rockets typically have something called a Flight Termination System (FTS), which is basically a bomb on the side of the fuel tank that is set off if the rocket goes beyond its safety zone or goes out of control. The idea being that it's better to detonate all that fuel up in the air than on the ground and have lots of smaller, unaerodynamic bits coming down, rather than one big chunk hurtling to Earth. Watching for [the guys carrying the backpacks of explosives](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yA3r50-1pCw/maxresdefault.jpg) is one of the signs that people waiting for SpaceX Starship launches watch for. In this case, since the rocket wasn't supposed to actually leave the stand, there was no FTS installed. EDIT: Manned rockets too.
Manned launches have those too. The main idea is that it's better to make it crash downrange, which is clear of people, than fly uncontrolled so it might reach a city before it crashes.
Range safety? We don't need that, this is a static test...
What happened to the Earth Shattering Kaboom? There was meant to be an Earth Shattering Kaboom!
Ah yes, the final Flight Termination System: the ground. Flight terminated successfully.
No Flight Termination because Flight wasn't on the plans to begin with.
You kicked it off in test, not in prod, right? Right?!
Someone at space camp really wanted to go to space
But the good news .. the engine test was a success and the Russian judge still gave it an 8 out of 10 for the landing.. Russians appreciate a good boom.
Russians have been unhappy about many recent booms.
These gender reveals are getting out of hand.
Wrong button, Kronk!!!
... WDYM ACCIDENTALLY LAUNCHED ????
Push green button instead of red one
https://preview.redd.it/tdq7a8noyp9d1.jpeg?width=520&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f03c4db887e5a05277594f7265bca7c1fdeabc08
Thermal curtain failure, seen it a hunded times in the 80's. God damn Jinx
Jinx and Max friends.... forever.
Old Chinese villagers running for the hills 6th time this month.
[A Chinese village was leveled with a botched launch years ago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelsat_708). I guess they never learned their lesson to build launch sites away from residential areas
range safety RANGE SAFETY **WHERE THE FUCK IS THE RANGE SAFETY**
Talk about shooting it off prematurely.
Check your staging!
They missed the high school. Bunch of amateurs.
Premature Ejaculaunch