On February 15, 1996, the Long March 3B rocket, carrying the Intelsat 708 telecommunications satellite, crashed 22 seconds after liftoff near the Xichang space center in Sichuan, China. The accident resulted in the destruction of the nearby village of Mayelin. According to official Chinese launch records, the vehicle hit the ground 23 seconds after liftoff. The failure was attributed to a short circuit in the inertial guidance platform, caused by a defective weld between gold and aluminum inside the system. The weld, which broke under the vibrations of liftoff, led to a complete loss of attitude control, causing the rocket to veer off course. The inertial guidance platform is a critical component that provides the rocket with information on its position, orientation, and speed. The failure of this system led to the rocket's inability to adjust its trajectory in real time. The official Chinese news agency Xinhua mentioned changes in the inertial reference after liftoff, noting that the exact cause remained to be analyzed and verified. Subsequent investigations confirmed that the failure in the guidance system was the origin of the tragedy. The human toll of the accident remains disputed. Officially, at least six people lost their lives on the ground during the incident. However, American witnesses, including Bruce Campbell from Astrotech, have questioned this figure, suggesting it may have only accounted for military personnel and not the civilian population. Researcher Chen Lan noted that the village had less than a thousand inhabitants, and most had been evacuated before the launch, a common practice in China since the 1980s. This suggests that the toll of several hundred deaths, often mentioned in rumors, is unlikely. The accident had significant implications for the Chinese space program. It marked a turning point for the reliability of the Long March rockets, which experienced no mission failures for fifteen years after the incident, until 2011. The event also had international repercussions, with the participation of American companies in the investigations leading to political controversy in the United States, with concerns about sensitive technology transfer to China. The crash site remains identifiable near the Xichang launch center, which continues to be used for orbital launches. The surrounding areas have occasionally received uncontrolled debris during launches, as seen in December 2023 and June 2024. The incident serves as a reminder of the precision required in space exploration, where even the smallest details, such as a failed weld, can lead to catastrophic failures.