According to the US Space Command, debris from a huge Chinese booster rocket returned to Earth on Saturday. At around 12:45 p.m. EDT, the former rocket reentered Earth's atmosphere above the Indian Ocean.
There was no immediate word on any debris or damage caused by the rocket's erratic return.
#USSPACECOM can confirm the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Long March 5B (CZ-5B) re-entered over the Indian Ocean at approx 10:45 am MDT on 7/30. We refer you to the #PRC for further details on the reentry’s technical aspects such as potential debris dispersal+ impact location.
— U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) July 30, 2022
The Aerospace Corporation had said prior to its arrival that it was likely to burn up on return, although there was a minor possibility of pieces causing damage or casualties. The firm could also not foresee the precise site of reentry or the amount of damage that may be done.
The rocket gained attention from the space world after China opted not to steer it back through the atmosphere. It was part of the enormous 23-ton Long March 5B-Y3 rocket, China's most powerful, that delivered the Wentian module to the station, which presently houses three astronauts.
According to The Aerospace Corporation experts, "there is a non-zero possibility of the surviving debris falling in a populated area—over 88 per cent of the world's population resides within the potential debris footprint of the reentry."
While China is not the only country engaging in such methods, the size of the Long March rocket stage has received particular attention.
China has previously allowed rocket stages to fall down to Earth on their own and was accused last year by NASA of "failing to satisfy responsible norms regarding their space debris" when sections of a Chinese rocket fell in the Indian Ocean.
Earlier this week, a Chinese cargo spacecraft reentering the atmosphere after servicing the country's permanent orbiting space station burnt up. According to the China Manned Space Agency, just minor portions of the Tianzhou-3 ship survived and fell safely into a specified location in the South Pacific on Wednesday.
Recently:
Tiangong 1, China's decommissioned space station, underwent an uncontrolled re-entry in 2018 and landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Another Long March-5B rocket fell into the stratosphere in 2020, eventually landing on the west coast of Africa.
China was also chastised for using a missile to destroy one of its obsolete meteorological satellites in 2007, resulting in a large debris field.
Such fears were dismissed by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhao Lijian.
"China has taken into consideration the debris reduction and return from orbit into the atmosphere of missions involving rocket carriers and satellites delivered into orbit since the development stage of the space engineering programme," Zhao said at a daily briefing on Wednesday.
"It is recognised that this sort of rocket uses a particular technological design in which the majority of the components are burnt up and destroyed during the reentry phase," Zhao explained. "The likelihood of inflicting damage to aircraft or ground operations is quite remote."
The shuttle Columbia, which entered in February 2003, was the most dramatic re-entry breakup over a populous region. When a 200,000-pound spaceship split up above Texas, a substantial quantity of debris fell to the earth, yet no one was hurt.
Similarly, when Skylab re-entered the atmosphere in 1978, debris rained across Western Australia, but no one was injured.