Government Officials Said There Was An 'Anomaly' During The Launch

A Chinese Long March booster failed during the launch of a satellite Sunday, putting China's planned future missions in doubt.

The launch took place Sunday evening from the southern island province of Hainan. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua said that an "anomaly occurred during the flight of the rocket", and that the failure of the booster would be investigated.

Reuters reports that the Chineses program has been relatively successful, though it is still a long way from catching up with the Russian and U.S. Space Programs. In 2003, China became the third country to send a man into space using its own rocket. Four years ago, China landed a rover called "Jade Rabbit" on the moon, but it developed severe technical issues.

China currently has plans to send humans to the Moon, but there has been no timetable established for such a mission.

There have been more concrete plans to send a probe to the Moon and bring back samples later this year using the same Long March booster to propel the probe into space. It is not know how Sunday's launch failure will affect those plans.

(Image from file)

FMI: Original Report