China just launched its rival to SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket for the first time, reportedly without providing any advance safety warnings.
The 236-foot-tall (72 meters) March 12B rocket blasted off at 4.40 p.m. local time (4.40 a.m. EDT) on Monday (June 1), from the Dongfeng Commercial Space Innovation Test Zone in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of northern China.
