Debris from a Chinese rocket that had been hurtling back towards Earth has disintegrated over the Indian Ocean, China says.
The
bulk of the rocket was destroyed during the re-entry, but parts landed
at a location 72.47° East and 2.65° North, Chinese state-run media
reported.
The point lies west of the Maldives.
US and European tracking sites had been monitoring the uncontrolled fall of the Long March-5b vehicle.
Chinese state media said parts of the rocket re-entered the atmosphere at 10:24 Beijing time (02:24 GMT) on Sunday.
US
Space Command said in a statement that it could "confirm the Chinese
Long March-5b re-entered over the Arabian Peninsula". It was "unknown if
the debris impacted land or water," the agency said.
Debris from China's Long March-5B Y2 carrier rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 10:24 am on Sunday with most parts burnt off during the process, China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.
ReplyDeleteThe location of re-entry is 72.47 degrees east longitude and 2.65 degrees north latitude, CMSA noted in a statement on Sunday.
Song Zhongping, an aerospace expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times that it is "completely normal" for rocket debris to return to Earth, and is a common practice carried out by global participants in the aerospace field, including China and the US.
As China's launch vehicle is mainly made of lightweight materials, most of it will be easily burnt up by the dense air in the atmosphere following its high-speed re-entry, space insiders explained.
The environmentally friendly fuel used by China's Long March-5B Y2 rocket will not result in water pollution if the debris falls into the ocean, space experts added.
The probability of harm caused by the rocket, which sent the first section of China's space station Tianhe core module into orbit on April 29, is "extremely low," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday amid continuous Western hype of the dangerous "out of control" re-entry.