Washington, Aug 11, 2026 (AFP) – A Chinese rocket carrying a communications satellite failed in its launch, state media said, attributing the failure to a “flight anomaly” as reports and videos suggested the spacecraft had exploded in mid-air.

Beijing has ploughed billions of dollars into its space programme in recent years to achieve what President Xi Jinping calls the country’s “space dream”.

Monday’s rare launch failure involved a Long March 7A carrier rocket, which lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in China’s southernmost province of Hainan at 8:02 pm (1202 GMT), state news agency Xinhua said.

An “anomaly” occurred when the rocket, which was carrying the Zhongxing-4B communications satellite, was in flight, Xinhua added.

The cause of the failure is under investigation, it said.

Singapore-based broadcaster Channel NewsAsia said in an Instagram post that the rocket had exploded and posted footage from the scene of awestruck crowds watching a fiery ball in the sky.

One video, posted a few hours after the launch by a social media profile located in Hainan, showed a rocket exploding into flames around 85 seconds after it blasted off, leaving behind a cloud of grey smoke as debris fell to the ground.

China successfully landed a reusable rocket for the first time in July, according to its space agency, marking a major step in its space ambitions and in reducing launch costs.

The country is aiming to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, commenting on a post about Monday’s failed launch on X, said that “rockets are insanely hard”.

“I hope they have a speedy recovery,” he added.

A four-tonne piece of a SpaceX rocket was believed to have unintentionally crashed into the Moon on Wednesday, a collision expected to leave behind a lunar crater.

China’s maiden launch of the Long March 7A from the Wenchang site in 2020 was also unsuccessful after “a malfunction occurred”, Xinhua reported in March that year.