China launches debut mission of Falcon 9-like rocket with no advance notice (video)

A partially reusable Chinese rocket just made a surprise debut. China launched its Long March 12B vehicle for the first time ever on Monday (June 1), sending it up from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. The liftoff occurred without warning: China did not issue airspace closure notices ahead of time, eschewing a safety practice commonly employed by launch operators. In another surprise, the Long March 12B carried functional payloads on its first-ever flight — two satellites for the Qianfan (“Thousand Sails”) internet megaconstellation, a Chinese version of SpaceX’s Starlink network. Those spacecraft reached low Earth orbit…