(Photo: VCG)

WENCHANG, Hainan, March 16 (Xinhua) -- The first of China's new medium-sized carrier rocket Long March-7A suffered a failure Monday.

The rocket blasted off at 9:34 p.m. Beijing Time from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on the coast of south China's Hainan Province, but a malfunction occurred later.

Chinese space engineers will investigate the cause of the failure.