A Long March-3A carrier rocket carrying two satellites of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) blasts off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Xichang, southwest China's Sichuan province, on Dec 16, 2019. (GUO WENBIN / XINHUA)

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

READ MORE: Long March carrier rocket lifts four satellites into space

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

ALSO READ: First Long March 5B rocket arrives at launch center

Chinese space engineers will investigate the cause of the failure.