Part of a Long March 2C rocket with toxic fuel crashes near a Chinese village

A video has appeared on the Internet showing a part of a Chinese launch vehicle falling on a settlement. Residents flee, and a thick orange cloud stretches high up from the object.

Some of it could have belonged to a Chinese Long March 2C missile that was launched on Saturday, June 22. The joint mission of China and France is designed to study gamma-ray bursts. The launch was declared a success, but it appears that it was not flawless.

On June 22, in the Qiannan Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture of Guizhou, China, local residents captured footage of debris from a Long March 2C rocket falling. The video shows the debris trailing yellow smoke, and after it hits the ground, smoke disperses.

In the video,… pic.twitter.com/wLzc0V0TOM

— Inconvenient Truths by Jennifer Zeng (@jenniferzeng97) June 23, 2024

The video shows the first stage of a Long March 2C rocket falling uncontrollably over a village in southwestern China. Local residents cover their ears and run for cover. There are no reports of injuries or property damage. The rocket booster appears to have fallen next to a road. Residents are forbidden to distribute such videos, but they do appear.

June 22: the booster of a 🇨🇳 Long March 2C fell into a village — most likely in Guiding County (贵定县), Guizhou — after the SVOM X-Ray Telescope was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan.

The Long March 2C launch vehicle uses highly toxic hypergolic… pic.twitter.com/8g9YFv8aEV

— Byron Wan (@Byron_Wan) June 23, 2024

It is likely that there was a leak of fuel, the color of which corresponds to nitrogen tetrachloride. This chemical compound is a strong oxidizing agent and can be deadly toxic, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center.

«In the rocket industry, it’s known as the BFRC, the big fucking red cloud. And when you see a BFRC, you run for your life. It’s pretty scary, but that’s how the Chinese do business. They have a different level of acceptable societal risk,» says Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center.

In the early 1950s, the USSR and the United States approved nitrogen tetraxide as a rocket fuel oxidizer, but according to NASA, it has been used less frequently over the years because it is extremely toxic. When it comes into contact with the skin, eyes, or respiratory system, it can destroy human tissue, and if inhaled, it can lead to fluid accumulation or even death.

It is known to China’s careless attitude to missile launches. Launch pads in most other countries are built along the coast, with boosters usually landing in the ocean. China’s Xichang launch sites in the southwest, Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert in the northwest, and Taiyuan in the north are inland, so accelerators usually fall on or near populated areas. In December 2023, part of a Long March 3B missile fell near a house in the southern province of Hunan.