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Chinese firm Space Pioneer, whose Tianlong-3 rocket made global headlines over the weekend after it escaped from the launch pad during a test fire, might have overestimated its test pad's capabilities, according to a patent of the pad posted on the social media platform Weibo. Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 is a medium lift rocket that is virtually similar to SpaceX's Falcon 9 when it comes to thrust and other specifications. Like the Falcon, Tianlong-3 is also designed to land vertically to allow the reuse of the first stage rocket booster.
The patent shows that the launch pad was capable of handling 600 tons of thrust, which, when combined with the 220 tons of fuel in the rocket and the 820 tons generated during the test, might have been too much for the ground test equipment to handle.
Space Pioneer's Tianlong-3 Might Have Generated More Thrust Than Test Pad Could Handle
After the test mishap yesterday, Space Pioneer shared details of the event in a release. The firm outlined that its rocket had generated 820 tons of thrust during the test, which is close to the rocket's full power at liftoff. Tianlong-3 weighs 590 tons at liftoff, and if the rocket had been filled to the brim at the time of the test, the mishap could have been avoided, according to the latest details.
These details, in the form of a patent filed by Space Pioneer for its test site, suggest that the maximum force that the pad could withstand was 600 tons. Given that Space Pioneer shared that the rocket had generated 820 tons of thrust, it appears that the fuel margin the firm had calculated for the test was incompatible with the pad's specifications.
Apart from the pad's ability to withstand thrust, a rocket's weight also acts as a counterbalance for the force generated by its engines during a static fire attempt. Research by X user TheSpaceEngineer suggests that the rocket had 220 tons of propellant by the time the test cutoff took place. When combined with the 820 tons of thrust generated, if Tianlong-3 had used up all or most of its fuel, then the 600 ton limit of the pad might have been unable to hold the rocket to the pad, especially if the built in safety margins failed to hold.
While no official statements made by Space Pioneer seen by Wccftech or coverage of the accidental launch on social media platforms have mentioned the 220 ton figure, it is possible that this was the case. The Tianlong-3 weighs 590 tons at liftoff, and during a limited duration static fire test, the rocket would have weighed just a fraction of this. Space Pioneer's official statement lays the blame on a structural pad failure but does not provide additional details - making it possible that the rocket was simply too light after it used most of its fuel during the static fire test.
After yesterday's anomaly, the firm's management told the Daily Economic News that it will continue to test the rocket but will avoid large-scale tests. According to the latest update, teams are currently searching for the rocket's 'black box' at the site, and the firm outlined that a final decision will be made after all the data is analyzed.
About the author: Ramish is a seasoned technology writer and editor with more than a decade of experience. He specializes in semiconductor fabrication and market analysis. With a background in finance and supply chain management - via his bachelors in Finance and a micromasters in supply chain management from MIT - Ramish combines financial rigor with deep industry insight to deliver accurate and authoritative coverage.
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