Incredible Drone Footage Captures the Moment Chinese Rocket Explodes During Landing

A Chinese startup has released an incredible video showing its reusable rocket failing to stick the landing causing catastrophic damage.

Deep Blue Aerospace says its first-of-its-kind reusable kerosene-fuelled rocket completed 10 of its 11 tasks — with the landing being the task that failed.

Stunning drone footage of Nebula-1 being tested at the Ejin Banner Spaceport in Inner Mongolia shows its landing feet deploying and slowly descending toward the pad but something goes wrong and it touches down hard. The crash caused the top portion of the rocket to snap off and there was fire damage also.

What’s remarkable about the footage is its cinematic quality, a drone chases after the rocket as it ascends to an altitude of roughly three miles (five kilometers) and follows it until its fiery end. The video looks professionally color-graded which brings out the dramatic tones of Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China.

Gizmodo notes that this type of video is a “different path” to the one most Chinse companies take and speculates that Deep Blue Aerospace may be borrowing a play from SpaceX which used to share failed rocket landings and paint them as partial victories.

Deep Blue Aerospace is one of several Chinese aerospace startups looking to break into commercial rockets the way SpaceX has done so successfully. Other companies include Linkspapce, iSpace, Galactic Energy, and Space Pioneer.

SpaceX uses its reusable Falcon 9 boosters to regularly carry payloads to low Earth orbit. China is looking to emulate SpaceX after the government allowed investments in spaceflight companies rather than continuing to let state-owned enterprises take all the funding.

If certified, the Nebula-1 rocket will be capable of carrying 4,400 pounds (2,000 kilograms) to low Earth orbit which is much smaller than the Falcon 9’s 55,000 pounds.

Image credits: Deep Blue Aerospace