On January 3, 2019, China became the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft on the far side of the moon. This remarkable achievement shows how effective China's space program has become. With the most amount of annual launches and the capability of launching humans into orbit, China is now regarded as one of the most powerful space programs in the world.

 But in the midst of all this success, there is a deeper side to China's space program. With their most relaxed safety standards, missiles are often launched on residents - sometimes colliding with urban and rural populations. In this video, we’re going to look at why China began launching over inhabited areas in the first place. 

 



We’ll also see how their quest to develop reusable rockets could completely improve this issue. In the midst of the cold war, the US and the Soviet Union were constantly demonstrating their advancements in nuclear weapons and missile technology.

 In 1957, the Soviets launched the first ever satellite into orbit - and China realized it needed to create its own space program in order to keep up. Over the course of two decades, China built three main launch sites - capable of launching missiles and satellites into orbit. These launch sites were built thousands of kilometers inland to make them less exposed to enemy attacks.

 But this came at a cost, as the missiles had to be fired directly over more densely populated areas. When choosing the best places for a launch site, there are two factors that come into play. As a rocket leaves the launch pad, it pitches over to gain the incredible amount of horizontal velocity needed to get into orbit. 

Because of this, launch sites are typically located on the coast where falling rocket parts can safely fall into the ocean. Another factor that determines the launch site location is the dimensions. Launch sites closer to the equator benefit from the extra speed of the Earth’s rotation, meaning the rocket requires less energy to get into orbit. 


But in the midst of the Cold War - and with tensions at an all time high, China went inland and further north for their launch sites. Throughout the 60’s and 70’s, China quickly became one of the major powers in space - creating heavy lift rockets and successfully launching and recovering a satellite. But in the rush to catch up with US and Soviet space programs, safety standards have become less of a priority. In 1996, China launched its largest rocket ever built, the Long March 3B.

 As soon as the launch pad happened, it started to take off the path immediately after 20 seconds before entering the nearest town. The disaster has killed at least six people - though many reports outside China estimate that the death toll was in the hundreds. Although the disaster was due to a flawed fault in the rocket, it did not prevent China from launching over an area covered.

 Over the past 10 years, there have been several reports of rocket debris falling on people's homes. Many of the Chinese start-ups have launched their X-Cheng launch site. When Long March 3B starts, 4 boosters are reset just before the huge first round. Although China try to drop these rockets stages onto unpopulated areas of forest, there are around 14 villages directly in the path of the launch site. 

A few days before the launches, the government sent evacuation notices to locals seeking power outages and a safe place to hide. To make matters worse, the Long March 3B rocket uses hyper golic fuel which is extremely toxic - so residents are told to stay far away from the debris once it has landed. 

Each country has its own way of working in space, but China's space history has led many other countries to lose confidence in them. Despite being one of the world's most advanced space programs, China has never been allowed to participate in the International Space Station. Even though China would bring a large amount of money to the table, the US officially banned them from the ISS since they feared China would only use the opportunity to steal technology. 


But when it comes to dealing with human safety, it’s not surprising that China weren’t allowed to take part. But China is finally doing something to breakaway from their rocket dropping habit. A new launch site has been built on the island of Hainan, which will allow some of China’s largest rockets to launch over sea. China has started to add grid fins to some of their rockets - similar to the ones seen on the Falcon 9. It gives the rock the ability to operate itself at the right point as it descends from the sky. Although this is mostly likely a sign that China is trying to develop a reusable rocket, it at least has the benefit of saving innocent people from falling rocket stages.