The 18-ton wreckage of the upper stage of China’s Long March 5B remote 2 launch vehicle (hereinafter referred to as the Long 5B rocket) re-entered the atmosphere at 10:24 a.m. Taiwan time on September 9 and crashed at 72.47 degrees East longitude and 2.5 degrees North latitude. The wreckage crashed into the Indian Ocean at 72.47 degrees east longitude and 2.65 degrees north latitude. The wreckage fell in the Indian Ocean at 72.47 degrees east longitude and 2.65 degrees north latitude, about southwest of the Maldives offshore. Although most of the parts were burned during the crash into the atmosphere, the landing point was only about 42 kilometers from the nearest inhabited island, which still had a certain degree of danger. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and experts have criticized China for letting the rocket fall uncontrollably, which is quite irresponsible.
China launched its Long 5B rocket into space on April 29, but after completing its mission to transport the space station’s core module into space, the main wreckage of the rocket’s booster went out of control and is expected to re-enter the atmosphere and crash into the ground, with the exact location and timing of the crash causing global concern. The China Manned Spacecraft Engineering Office pointed out on the morning of May 9 that the Long 5B rocket crashed at 10:12 a.m. at the regional center point located at 28.38 degrees east longitude and 34 degrees north latitude. 38 degrees East and 34.4 degrees North. The rocket entered the atmosphere at 10:12 a.m. at the regional center point of 28.38 degrees East and 34.3 degrees North, approximately over the Mediterranean Sea, and crashed into the Indian Ocean 12 minutes later.
The past 30 years, China has a long list of antecedents
It is understood that the wreckage of the Long 5B rocket was about 30 meters long, 5 meters wide and weighed 18 tons, making it the largest spacecraft to fall to Earth since the 1990s. In fact, this is not the first time that China has “ignored” a rocket after a launch. Over the past three decades, it has repeatedly sent large rockets into Earth orbit and then let them fall out of control, including last May when the wreckage of the Long 5B crashed into the Ivory Coast of West Africa after it had reentered the atmosphere uncontrolled, causing damage to several houses, but fortunately no one was killed or injured.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson issued a statement noting that all countries engaged in space activities must maximize transparency in the re-entry process, while minimizing the threat of this process to the people and property of the Earth, to ensure that space activities are safe, stable and sustainable. China has clearly failed to meet the standard of responsible space waste. U.S. Secretary of Defense Austin also slammed China’s negligence in the matter on Saturday.
Astronomer: China’s reckless bets
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, noted that since the wreckage of NASA’s 76-ton Skylab space station fell into Australia in 1979, most countries have refined their designs to avoid the uncontrolled return of rockets or space equipment debris to Earth, but China clearly designed its Long 5B rocket “from the ground up. Everything was kept simple.” He said that statistically, the Long5B is most likely to crash into the ocean after re-entry into the atmosphere, “China seems to have won the gamble, but this behavior is still quite reckless.
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