RAccording to space officials in the US and China, emnants of a Chinese rocket booster went down over the Indian Ocean on Saturday.
US Space Command doesn’t know what route the debris of the booster could take. saidOn Saturday, the Chinese government was referred to by Twitter. China’s spaceflight agency said wreckage of the 23-metric-ton (25.4 tons) Long March 5B hit Earth over the sea in the southwestern Philippines with the “vast majority” of the debris burning up upon reentry, according to a brief statement that was criticized by a US official.
“The People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.
“All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property,” Nelson said.
Experts declared that there was little chance of any infrastructure or injury. The rocket body had been in an elliptical orbit around Earth and was “dragged toward an uncontrolled reentry,” to Earth’s atmosphere, according to the Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit corporation based in El Segundo, California, that provides technical advice for space missions and receives US funding.
Before re-entry, experts predicted that while much of the massive booster would burn up upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere, huge chunks — as much as 40% — would survive and fall to oceans or the ground. A ground track was shown in some projections that ran through parts of Mexico, Brazil and then crossed the Cape of Africa. Finally it passed over Southeast Asia.
Watch us! @SpaceTrackOrgAnd @18thSDSPlease confirm your email #CZ5B reentry. https://t.co/YDoqqQopyU
— The Aerospace Corporation (@AerospaceCorp) July 30, 2022
This marks the third such uncontrolled Chinese rocket booster entry in as many years. A piece of a Long March rocket was found floating in the Indian Ocean. It prompted concern about the Chinese space agency losing control.
Experts agree that it is impossible to control re-entries. SpaceX Rocket boosters for instance, land vertically and then are captured and refurbished to be reused during subsequent launches.
China dismisses Western concerns regarding the debris. It calls it a smear campaign as the US and China space race intensifies.
“The US and Western media deliberately exaggerate and exaggerate the ‘loss-of-control’ of the Chinese rocket debris and the probability of personal injury caused by the rocket debris, obviously with bad intentions,” Shanghai-based news site Guancha.cn said Tuesday.
The Long March 5B rocket took off July 24 carrying one of the heaviest payloads in recent years, a module for China’s under-construction Tiangong space station. China’s space station began after Beijing was barred from joining the International Space Station.
Read More From Time
