NASA criticizes China's handling of rocket re-entry as debris lands near Maldives
"Spacefiring countries should minimize the risk to Earth's people and property on re-entry of space objects and maximize transparency," NASA Administrator Sen. Bill Nelson said in a statement released on the space agency's website on Sunday.
"China is failing to meet the responsible standards about its space debris," he said.
Before landing just west of the Maldives, the most massive Long March 5B rocket, however, was ignited when the atmosphere re-ignited, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said in a post on WeChat.
It was unclear if any debris had landed in the atoll nation.
The US Space Command stated that the Long March 5B had reestablished the Earth on the Arabian Peninsula.
The rocket, which is about 108 feet long and weighs about 40,000 pounds, began orbiting a new Chinese space station on 29 April. After its fuel was spent, the rocket was uncontrolled through space and released to Earth's gravity. Dragged him back to the ground.
Typically, the international space community tries to avoid such scenarios. Most rockets are used to lift satellites and other objects into space that make more controlled rearrangements to the ocean, or they are left in so-called "cemetery" orbits that hold them in space for decades or centuries. "The Long March rocket is designed in such a way that it leaves these large states in low orbit," said astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Astrophysics Center at Harvard University.
In this case, it was absolutely impossible when or where the booster would land.
The European Space Agency predicted a "risk zone" that contained any part of the Earth's surface between latitudes 41.5N and 41.5S - including almost all of New York, Africa and Australia south of the US Parts included. Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece of the South of Japan and Europe.
The threat to populated areas of the land was not negligible, but fortunately most of the Earth's surface area is consumed by the oceans, so the chances of surviving a catastrophic run-way were slim.
The rocket is one of the largest objects in recent memory to attack Earth after falling out of orbit following the 2018 incident, in which a piece of a Chinese space laboratory broke into the Pacific Ocean and an 18-metric in 2020. Re-iterated - Ton Long March 5B Rocket.
Despite recent efforts to better regulate & reduce space debris, the Earth's orbit is littered with hundreds of thousands of pieces of uncontrolled junk, most of which are smaller than 10 centimeters.
Objects are constantly falling out of orbit, although most fragments in the Earth's atmosphere burn before they have a chance to make an impact on the surface. But in this instance, parts of large objects, such as the Long March rocket, can evade and threaten to revive and threaten the structure and people on the ground.
"Norms has been established," McDowell said.
"There is no international law or rule - nothing specific - but countries around the world have practiced: 'Yes, for big rockets, this is not the way we should leave our trash in orbit."
Paul LeBlanc of CNN contributed.