China says Long March 7A rocket launch failed after flight anomaly

China said a Long March 7A rocket carrying the ChinaSat-4B satellite failed after an in-flight anomaly following liftoff from the Wenchang space launch site in the southern island province of Hainan on Monday.

BEIJING — China said a Long March 7A rocket carrying the ChinaSat-4B satellite failed after an in-flight anomaly following liftoff from the Wenchang space launch site in the southern island province of Hainan on Monday.

The rocket blasted off at 8:02 p.m. Beijing time (8 a.m. ET), according to Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, which added that the mission was unsuccessful and the cause was under investigation.

China’s National Space Administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, commenting on a post about the failed launch on X, wrote “rockets are insanely hard.” Many private and state-owned Chinese firms are racing to close the gap with SpaceX.

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