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China's First Attempt To Reach Orbit With Private Spacecraft Fails

China has launched privately designed rockets before, but never with the intention of reaching orbit.

China's First Attempt To Reach Orbit With Private Spacecraft Fails
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China's first rocket launch by a private company attempting to reach orbit failed on Saturday. 

The three-stage rocket by LandSpace had a successful launch initially, but couldn't reach orbit due to an issue in its third stage.

China Global Television Network says the launch did provide data that could help in future attempts. This is China's 30th launch this year.

To be clear, this wasn't the first launch by a private Chinese firm — it was just the first attempting to reach orbit. China launched its first privately developed rocket by OneSpace Technology back in May.