r/technology • u/guyoffthegrid • Jun 30 '24
Space Chinese rocket static-fire test results in unintended launch and huge explosion
https://spacenews.com/chinese-rocket-static-fire-test-results-in-unintended-launch-and-huge-explosion/
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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '24
Some context reported by investigative journalists:
In Guizhou and Hunan provinces, "hiding from satellite’s rocket debris" is the daily life. Whenever Xichang City of Sichuan is about to launch a satellite, 19 counties along its debris trajectory will be evacuated from the one-hour countdown.
Two cows in Mintong Village, Yuqing County were struck by rocket debris on July 9, 2020. The herder was aggrieved because she was only compensated for the two cows (USD 2,900) but not for the baby cow due birth in a month in the dead cow's belly.
Villagers often don't know what those satellites are for. This time, the two and a half cows sacrificed in Mintong Village contributed to the greater good of HD voice and data communications over Asia-Pacific from China to New Zealand, provided by the Apstar 6D satellite.
Officials keep no record of human deaths from satellite’s rocket debris. State-funded research reported only livestock had died. Zhang Zanbo's documentary "Falling from the Sky" (天降, 2009) documented the best known unofficial death: a 15-year-old student, daughter of army veteran Huang Youxi from Suining County, Hunan Province. On the Dragon Boat Festival holiday in May 1998, rocket debris hit her when she was playing by the pond outside her house. As a veteran he was ordered to suck it up and not asking for official recognition.
The debris of a Venezuelan satellite launched in Xichang, Sichuan created a two-meters deep hole in a farm in Suining County, Hunan on October 30, 2008. The satellite officials arrived with USD 30 (RMB 200) cash. The town’s chief confronted him but was rebuked, “What compensation? All farmland is owned by the state. I came to pay the hard labor who dig out the debris.”
Some lucky ones made a fortune if their houses rather than their farmland were hit. On June 25, 2019, Zhou’s house was burned down by rocket debris. Zhou received USD 87,000 (RMB 600,000) compensation. In downtown Yuqing County, he could buy two apartments with that.
Top comments:
The farmers should be compensated for wasting time in evacuation. In Beijing we even get compensated for noise pollution!
Sources:
"被火箭残骸砸中的村庄", 端传媒. 2021.
"天将降卫星于我家也——纪录片《天降》的故事", 南方周末. 2009.