Chinese Space Debris Crashes Down in the Philippines

Again, it happened. The Long March 5B rockets were found off the coast of the Philippines.

The Long March 5B that was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center on Hainan island last week is believed to be the one that carried the lab materials to the space station.

The Philippines has faced threats from Chinese space junk before. The Philippine Space Agency is trying to get the authorities in Manila to sign the UN treaties. If those treaties are signed, citizens of the island nation will be able to seek compensation for any injuries or damage caused by falling rocket debris.

Sky Fall

The Philippines are under the direct space flight path of China. The nation was hit twice by Long March 5B junk, once at the beginning of the rocket's launch and once at the end.

An official told The Inquirer that the risk is higher for them because they are under the flight path of most Chinese rocket launches.

The crashes near the island could hit land. They have done that before. A fragment of a Long March 2D rocket crashed into a Chinese field after making a landing in West Africa. There is a 10% risk that falling space junk will cause human casualties in the next decade, and no lives have been taken by falling space junk thus far.

China hasn't expressed any concern over its rockets. International governance for ensuring that any and all spacefaring nations keep potentially dangerous debris in check seems to have little incentive to change its ways.

There are suspected Chinese rocket debris in the Philippines.

A large chunk of a Chinese rocket crashed down in a field.