China bounces back from Long March rocket explosion with back-to-back launches (video)

China just completed not one but two space missions, less than a week after a Long March 7A rocket explosion briefly grounded its fleet.

The state-owned China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation ( CASC ) returned to flight with the launch of a Long March 12 rocket from the Hainan Commercial Space Launch Site in Wenchang.

The rocket lifted off on Aug.

16 at 12:10 a.m.

EDT (0410 GMT; 12:10 p.m. local time in China) and delivered a stack of 24 internet-beaming satellites into low Earth orbit (LEO).

It was the first launch since China's Long March 7A exploded mid-flight on Aug.

10.

Footage of that mission showed the Long March 7A's fairing section and the upper portion of the launch vehicle bending backward about 85 seconds after liftoff, resulting in the total loss of the rocket and its payload, the Zhongxing-4B communications satellite .

China's Long March 12 rocket lifted off with a stack of 24 internet satellites on Aug.

16, 2024. (Image credit: CASC/Hu Zhipeng) Less than 24 hours after the successful Long March 12 mission, and about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) north of the Wenchang launch site, a Long March 2C rocket lifted off from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, in Shanxi province.

The launch occurred on Aug.

16 at 11:02 p.m.

EDT (0302 GMT and 11:02 a.m. local time in China on Aug.

17), and delivered the "SEO" satellite for the United Arab Emirates to its planned orbit, according to the China National Space Administration .