China’s Long March 7A rocket explodes 85 seconds after liftoff in rare launch failure
China’s Long March 7A Y18 rocket exploded in mid-air shortly after launching from Wenchang, Hainan, on the evening of August 10, with its ChinaSat-4B satellite payload believed to have been completely lost. Chinese authorities later confirmed that the mission had failed because of an in-flight anomaly but have yet to disclose the cause, leaving uncertainty over whether the incident stemmed from a system malfunction or the activation of the flight termination system.