A Long March 5B rocket lifts off from the the Wenchang launch site on China’s southern Hainan … [+]
A 23-ton, 10-story Chinese rocket made an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday and was seen breaking up off the coast of Malaysia by eyewitnesses.
The US Space Force confirmed that what some first mistook for meteors was in fact the Long March 5B (CZ-5B) booster that successfully sent a new laboratory module to the Chinese Tiangong space station earlier this week.
US Space Command wrote on Twitter that it “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.”
“The People’s Republic of China did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson admonished the Chinese government in a statement shortly after re-entry was confirmed. “All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property.”
Astronomer Jonathan McDowell, a leading observer of all things orbital, noted that “re-entry looks to have been observed from Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia. Debris would land downrange in northern Borneo, possibly Brunei.”
This is the third time a CZ-5B has made an uncontrolled re-entry in the past two years.
There were no immediate reports of impact on land or damage from debris.
Developing story…
