China's latest heavy-lift carrier rocket launch fails after liftoff

Image credit: China Xinhua News/Twitter

New Delhi: China's attempt to launch its latest heavy-lift carrier rocket, the Long March-5 Y2, on Sunday evening failed following an abnormality in the flight, a major blow to the country's ambitious space missions.

China's largest rocket, carrying an experimental communication satellite, blasted off at 7.23 p.m. from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern province of Hainan.

But 40 minutes later, Xinhua flashed a headline declaring the launch a failure - without providing any details.

“Anomaly was detected during its flight and further investigation will be carried out,” Xinhua tweeted.

China says launch of Long March-5 Y2 "unsuccessful". Anomaly was detected during its flight and further investigation will be carried out pic.twitter.com/qQlFVJufB3

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) July 2, 2017

Dubbed "Chubby 5" for its huge size - five metres in diameter and 57 metres tall - the LM-5 rocket is designed to carry up to 25 tonnes of payload into low orbit, more than doubling the country's previous lift capability.

The Long March-5 made its maiden flight in November 2016 from Wenchang.

The rocket uses environmentally friendly fuel, including kerosene, liquid hydrogen, and liquid oxygen, rather than highly-toxic propellants.

The launches of Long March-5 have been scheduled in preparation for China's lunar probe, manned space station and Mars probe missions, Xinhua added.

(With IANS inputs)