China rocket parts fall near school, spewing orange, toxic smoke


by Apple Daily

On September 7, 2020, part of a rocket launched from a rocket launch site in northern China reportedly fell near a school in Shaanxi Province.

Chinese rocket stage appears to crash near school during Gaofen 11 satellite launch | Space

https://www.space.com/china-launches-gaofen-11-satellite-rocket-crash.html

On September 7th, at 1:57 PM local time (2:57 PM Japan time), a Long March 4B rocket was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China. According to Xinhua News Agency, China's state-run news agency, the rocket was carrying the Gaofen 11-02, a new optical remote sensing satellite used for disaster prevention and surveying. This was the 345th launch of a Long March 4B rocket.

On the same day, a video was posted on the Chinese social media platform Weibo showing what appeared to be a rocket falling and emitting a poisonous orange smoke. The video was reposted on Twitter below.



When the movie starts, you can see a rod-shaped object falling straight down from the sky.



The object falls to the ground at a tremendous speed. If you look closely, you can see that it is a fairly large object photographed from a distance.



Before the object hits the ground, the scene cuts to show a plume of orange smoke rising from the sky.



The scene then changes to a scene where orange smoke is seen from what appears to be a schoolyard, and many children can be heard shouting and yelling.



Footage of what appears to be the impact point shows large holes in the ground, exposing the soil, and broken trees.



According to a Weibo user, the video was taken near a mountain near Lilong Village in Gaoyao Town, Luonan County, Shaanxi Province. Taiwanese news outlet

Apple Daily reported, 'The unidentified rocket-like object fell, causing strong shaking and billowing smoke, and shattering windows in surrounding homes. There has been no official statement about the falling object.'

In addition, Chinese portal site NetEase News reported that 'objects scattered throughout the mountains clearly have the three characters 'China Airlines' written on them,' and published a video that appears to have been taken by a different person than the one above.



Photos

published by QQ.com, a portal site run by Tencent, showed windows of the building shattered.




The object that fell this time is believed to be the first stage of the Long March 4B rocket, which was launched on September 7th. Below is a photo of the first stage of the rocket being assembled. Comparing the size of the rocket part with the words 'China Space' written on it and the people standing at the site shows how huge the rocket part is.



Space.com, which handles astronomy-related news, said, 'The first stage of the Long March 4B rocket uses a toxic mixture of hydrazine and dinitrogen tetroxide as propellant, both of which pose a serious health risk to humans upon contact,' and suggested that the orange smoke rising from the impact point was due to toxic propellant.

China has made remarkable progress in the field of space development in recent years, but its lack of regard for safety has repeatedly come under fire, as seen in the November 2019 incident in which a part of the Long March 3B rocket struck a residential home, causing a fire and toxic smoke.

China's Long March 3B rocket booster reportedly hit a residential house, scattering highly toxic fuel - GIGAZINE

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