Landspace fails to reach orbit with milestone private Chinese launch

Landspace suffered an issue with the third stage of its Zhuque-1 solid launch vehicle Saturday as it bid to become the first Chinese private launch company to reach orbit. The three-stage Zhuque-1, named after the Vermillion Bird from Chinese mythology, lifted off from a mobile platform at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, northwest China, at 4 a.m. Eastern (4 p.m. local time). No live coverage or reporting was available, but space enthusiasts tracking Chinese launches attended, posting apparent images and footage of the launch on Sina Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-like microblogging service. After nominal first and second stages and fairing separation an issue with the third stage resulted in the spacecraft failing to achieve orbit, Landspace CEO Zhang Changwu confirmed to press at the site following the launch. More

(Source: SpaceNews - Oct 28)