A view of the space center of LandSpace in Jiaxing, East China’s Zhejiang Province Photo: Courtesy of LandSpace

China's private aerospace company LandSpace said on Tuesday that an online rumored "explosion" in its research center in Shanghai was caused by a normal experiment at its rocket fuel storage tank, and three workers onsite were slightly scratched, with no serious injuries reported.

LandSpace denied the rumored "explosion," as the company told the Global Times on Tuesday, noting that the blast was caused by a low-temperature static blasting experiment targeting fuel storage tank of its private rocket, being conducted by the company's research team.

During the experiment, the storage tank undertook normal blast experiment, under a pressure of 0.65 megapascals and the control process of the experiment performed normally, while some glass was damaged, leaving three workers on site slightly scratched with no serious injuries, LandSpace said.

LandSpace has research and development (R&D) bases and manufacturing centers in Beijing, Xi'an city in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Shanghai, Huzhou and Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang Province. The Shanghai R&D center primarily focuses on the development and operation of liquid-fueled rocket propulsion systems, providing power solutions for aerospace vehicles, according to the company.

In July 2023, the world's first liquid oxygen, liquid methane carrier rocket ZQ-2 Y2 developed by LandSpace completed its flight procedure and accomplished its maiden mission, marking a breakthrough in China's commercial aerospace sector.