A Chinese rocket carrying an Indonesian communications satellite failed to reach orbit on April 9—the second failure for China’s space agency in less than a month, according to Chinese state media Xinhua News Agency.
The rocket was carrying the Palapa-N1, a next-generation satellite for broadband and broadcast communications. The launch took place at 19:46 local time at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China. The first and second stages of the three-stage launch appeared to perform well. But the rocket malfunctioned when it was high up in the sky during the third stage, destroying the Indonesian satellite.
