Sunday, 09 May 2021 09:18 AM MYT
The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the core module of China’s space station Tianhe, takes off from Wenchang Space Launch Center in Hainan province, China April 29, 2021. ― Reuters pic
Subscribe to our Telegram channel for the latest updates on news you need to know.
SHANGHAI, May 9 ― Remnants of China’s largest rocket launched last week are expected to plunge back through the atmosphere in the coming hours, European and US tracking centres said today.
While there were still varying estimates of where the rocket would land, it appeared increasingly likely it would not hit the United States.
NASA Chief Hits Out After Long March 5B Chinese Rocket Lands Near Maldives
On 5/9/21 at 5:29 AM EDT
NASA officials have launched an attack on China s lack of transparency and failure to act responsibly over the re-entry of its Long March 5B rocket.
The rocket broke up as it reentered Earth s atmosphere with its remnants landing north of the Maldives, in the Indian Ocean, according to Space Force s 18 Space Control Squadron.
It added the Long March 5B, which was made of four boosters and a core stage, fell into the sea at 10:14 p.m. on Saturday. It was launched from Hainan island on April 29.
AFP
9 MAY 2021
A large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered the Earth s atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean on Sunday, the Chinese space agency said, following fevered speculation over where the 18-tonne object would come down.
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. After monitoring and analysis, at 10:24 (0224 GMT) on May 9, 2021, the last-stage wreckage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 launch vehicle has re-entered the atmosphere, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said in a statement, providing coordinates for a point in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.
The fragments are from a Chinese space module launched at the end of last month. There had been speculation about where the debris would land, but experts predicted the chances of death or injuries were tiny.