There is a piece of Chinese space junk on the ground.
The 25-ton core stage of a Long March 5B rocket reentered Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean this afternoon, ending its brief but controversialorbital stay.
The People's Republic of China reentered over the Indian Ocean at 10:45 am. On 7/30, the U.S. Space Command will announce via social media. We will refer you to the #PRC for more information on the reentry's technical aspects.
The biggest spaceship to fall out of the sky.
meteor spotted in kuching! #jalanbako 31/7/2022 pic.twitter.com/ff8b2zI2swJuly 30, 2022
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On July 24th, the Long March 5B lifted off carrying a new module towards the Chinese space station. Unlike the core stages of most rockets, which are steered to a safe disposal shortly after launch or land softly for future reuse, the Long March 5B made it to its intended destination. It was a fast moving piece of space junk that was brought down in an unpredictable and uncontrollable fashion.
This end-of-life scenario is built into the Long March 5B's design, to the displeasure of exploration advocates and many of the broader spaceflight community. Critics say that the disposal strategy is reckless because the big rocket doesn't burn up completely after reentering.
Suspected rocket debris at Sibu Sarawak Area pic.twitter.com/xIROJGM0PDJuly 30, 2022
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The Long March 5B is thought to have survived all the way to the ground.
It is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 The rocket's break up from Kuching, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, was captured by one observer, who posted a video of the event on social media.
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics says the video from Kuching shows it was high in the atmosphere at that time. It's "unlikely but not impossible" that one or more chunks will hit a population center, he said in a second message.
We won't know where the rocket debris came from for a while. The fact that the crash happened doesn't reflect well on China's spaceflight program.
"What really should have happened is, there should have been some fuel left on board for this to be a controlled reenter," said a senior technical fellow at the California-based tracking company. It would be the right thing to do.
Shortly after the re-entry, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson called out China in a statement.
As the Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth, the PRC did not give specific trajectory information.
"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." Ensuring the safety of people here on Earth is important to the responsible use of space.
Photos and history of China's Long March rocket family.
There have been three falls for the Long March 5B core stage. The rocket's body rained back to Earth over West Africa about 10 days after it was launched in May 2020.
The core module of the space station was lofted by the second flight of the rocket. The Long March 5B body reentered over the Arabian peninsula about a week after liftoff.
The rocket is expected to launch the third and final module this fall. There will likely be more Chinese space junk drama after that.
"I think China is going to slowly adopt the rules of other countries in space," he said.
They were a latecomer to space activities. I think they're catching up in the same way.
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