Large Segment Of Chinese Rocket Disintegrates Over Indian Ocean

The Chinese space agency says a large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean on Sunday.

Officials in Beijing had said there was little risk from the freefalling segment of the Long March-5B rocket, which had launched the first module of China’s new space station into Earth orbit on April 29.

However, the US space agency NASA and some experts said China had behaved irresponsibly, as an uncontrolled re-entry of such a large object risked damage and casualties.

In a statement, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said after monitoring and analysis, at 0224 GMT on May 9, 2021, the last-stage wreckage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 launch vehicle had re-entered the atmosphere.

Providing coordinates for a point in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives, It added that most of the segment disintegrated and was destroyed during descent.

The US military’s Space Command said the rocket “re-entered over the Arabian Peninsula at approximately 10:15 pm EDT on May 8 (0215 GMT Sunday)”.

Monitoring service Space-Track, which uses US military data, said that the location in Saudi Arabia was where American systems last recorded it adding that it was confirmed the rocket actually went into the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives.

Because it was an uncontrolled descent, there was widespread public interest and speculation about where the debris would land.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin suggested last week that China had been negligent, and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson echoed that after the re-entry on Sunday.