Chinese Long March rocket explodes 90 seconds after liftoff

A Chinese Long March rocket exploded less than ninety seconds after liftoff on Monday, Semafor reports. The rocket was carrying a communications satellite, marking the second failure of the Long March family this year. The launch had been scheduled to achieve a record twelve-day interval between missions, underscoring Beijing's push to accelerate its space activity. China remains locked in a new space race with the US. A US think tank analysis found that China still lacks a reliable reusable rocket—a capability SpaceX has repeatedly demonstrated. Last year, the US launched more than twenty-seven hundred tonnes of payload, mostly through commercial operators; China managed just three hundred fifteen tonnes. Despite this gap, a former NASA administrator predicted that China's astronauts would land on the Moon before American astronauts.

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