China s rocket debris spurs calls to limit space junk
ANI
19 May 2021, 00:56 GMT+10
Beijing [China], May 18 (ANI): The uncontrolled re-entry of a China Long March rocket into Earth s atmosphere has spurred the calls for new policies to help mitigate the growing problem of space junk.
Early this month, the remnants of the Chinese rocket plunged into the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.
Most of the huge Long March 5B rocket, however, burned up on reentering the atmosphere, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said in a post on WeChat, before it landed just west of the Maldives.
The rocket, which was about 108 feet tall and weighs nearly 40,000 pounds, had launched a piece of a new Chinese space station into orbit on April 29.
The Chinese government, perhaps predictably, is playing it calmly. âThe probability of causing harm to aviation activities or [on people and activities] on the ground is extremely low,â the foreign ministry spokesman, Wang Wenbin, said on Friday.
But the fiery fate of the booster, wherever it comes down, speaks to the larger issue of space debris and space sustainability, especially as space becomes a target not just for national space programs but also increasingly the private sector. Under international treaty, private space actors, who are expected to put 45,000 satellites in low Earth orbit over the next several years, are under the legal responsibility of their host nations.