Watch moment Chinese Elon Musk-style SpaceX knock-off rocket EXPLODES in botched landing in stunning drone footage

STUNNING drone footage has captured the infinitesimal a Chinese SpaceX knock-off rocket exploded successful a immense fireball during a botched landing

The rocket, inspired by Elon Musk's reusable Falcon 9, was attempting to onshore vertically, but failed terribly aft crashing successful its last stage.

Deep Blue Aerospace said it conducted what it called a "high-altitude" trial formation of its Nebula-1 rocket.

The trial formation was going good initially, but a abrupt method mistake conscionable earlier landing forced the shuttle to clang and detonate successful a monolithic blaze.

Stunning footage shows the rocket trying dramatically trying onshore successful a vertical position.

But arsenic soon arsenic it reached the launchpad, the landing systems failed and the thrusters stopped moving - and the rocket plunged to the crushed successful a fireball crash.

Nebula-1 rocket could lone scope an altitude of 3 miles earlier crashing astatine the Ejin Banner Spaceport successful Inner Mongolia.

The Chinese startup institution said the shuttle was capable to implicit 10 retired of 11 tests but failed astatine the past stage.

This is not the archetypal Chinese rocket to effort the ambitious vertical take-off and landing, achieved successfully by Musk's SpaceX.

CHINA'S THREATENING SPACE AMBITIONS

Under dictator Xi's leadership, China has been brewing ambitious plans to go the person of the planetary abstraction rush.

The state spent astir £11.2billion connected its abstraction programme successful 2023, according to Statista.

While China was precocious to the archetypal circular of the space race, Beijing is investing heavily successful becoming the 2nd federation to enactment humans connected the Moon by 2030.

The Chinese-owned Tiangong abstraction station was completed successful precocious 2022, and has been permanently manned since then.

China has doubled the fig of satellites it has successful orbit since 2019, according to the US Defence Intelligence Agency.

Experts besides fearfulness that China's monster web of tracking satellites could snoop connected Western subject operations.

Washington and Beijing presently person the astir developed plans for securing abstracted imperishable bases connected the Moon, retired of immoderate different state successful the world.

And fears are China, if it succeeds successful making a elephantine leap up of the US, could endanger aggression successful space.

A bid of non-binding bilateral agreements called the Artemis Accords person been signed betwixt the US and different nations to guarantee bid successful abstraction and connected different planets.

However, China has stayed retired of the agreement, indicating a imaginable menace from the communist country.

Nasa main Bill Nelson, who has been outspoken astir his fears surrounding China's activities in space, said: "My interest would beryllium if China got determination archetypal and said, 'This is our territory, you enactment out'.

"Obviously you don't privation to interfere with each different but don't state that this full territory is abruptly yours."

China's military beingness successful the South China Sea signals however the state mightiness behave connected the lunar surface, Nelson has antecedently claimed, which would breach the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

The state is besides developing giant spy balloons and hypersonic missiles.