China’s uncontrolled rocket crashes over the Indian Ocean

Photo by Yang Guanyu/Xinhua via Getty Images

China's Long March 5B rocket reentered the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean and landed on the island of Borneo.

The US Space Command confirmed that the rocket came down, but it wasn't clear where it fell. The Manned Space Agency said the rocket reentered near the same area, and that most of it burned up on its way down.

The lab module was launched from a Long March 5B rocket on July 24th. The Long March 5B thrusts its first stage into the sky. The piece, which is over 100 feet in length and 22 tons in weight, is going to crash down to Earth with no way to stop it.

Projections had the rocket landing anywhere from Mexico to the southern tip of Africa, which caused a lot of uncertainty around the globe. China has had three Long March 5B launches and three out-of-control landings. The core module was brought to space by China in 2020. There was some structural damage caused by the debris from the rocket landing. The pieces of the lab module that went down into the Indian Ocean were launched by China.

Reentry looks to have been observed from Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia. Debris would land downrange in northern Borneo, possbily Brunei. [corrected] https://t.co/sX6m1XMYoO

— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) July 30, 2022

Some Malaysian users thought the rocket was a meteorite. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, debris from the rocket could end up near Sibu, Bintulu, or Brunei, but he doesn't think it's going to land in them.

Nelson responded to the landing in a statement. As the Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth, the People's Republic of China didn't 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.

This isn't the last out-of-control rocket that will crash down to Earth. In October, China will use a Long March 5B rocket to launch its third and final module to the space station, as well as bringing a telescope to space in three years.