China’s Long March 7A rocket failed shortly after launching Monday from the Wenchang spaceport while carrying the ChinaSat-4B communications satellite.

Officials said an in-flight anomaly caused the mission to fail, with the cause now under investigation.

Experts said the rocket was destroyed at a relatively low altitude, meaning neither the satellite nor debris reached orbit.

The failure was the Long March 7A’s first since 2020, after the rocket had completed more than a dozen successful launches, NBC News has reported.

The incident is not expected to affect China’s upcoming Chang’e-7 lunar mission, which will use a different Long March 5 rocket to explore the Moon’s south pole.