Beijing took the full risk of being embarrassed by the world publicity. Like the Europeans, when 20 years ago the first flight of the Ariane 5 rocket failed, which had to leave shortly after the take off from the course and had to be blown. But with the Chinese everything went smoothly - apart from several breaks during the countdown before the start.

Live on television, picked up on Thursday evening under floodlight China's so far most powerful and largest carrier rocket "Long March 5". The nearly 870-ton rocket brought the small experimental satellite "Shijian-17" into the space from a newly constructed space railway station in Wenchang in southern China.

With the model, the Chinese are pushing into the international top league of carrier rockets from Europe, America and Russia, which can carry satellites, components for space stations or astronauts into space.

China's rocket can be significantly more than the Ariane 5

The "Long March 5" model is the next step in the Chinese's long-term plans in space. A rocket family with different performance is being developed. They are supposed to bring heavy loads into a geostationary orbit, to help parking space in space for telecommunication satellites, but also to help build up China's own space station, or to transport capsules to the moon or Mars.