The first-ever attempt by a private Chinese company to send a rocket into space has failed in an increasingly heated competition between commercial space start-ups.
On Saturday, Beijing-based start-up LandSpace said “something abnormal happened after the second stage” of launching its Zhuque-1 rocket from a national launch site in the Gobi desert. The rocket, named after a mythological Chinese phoenix, had been carrying a commercial satellite for state broadcaster CCTV.
Despite its doomed trajectory, the red-and-white rocket reflects the increased blurring between China’s private and state-led hardware companies as the country enlists the private sector to develop globally competitive dual-use technologies.