The uncontrolled Chinese rocket finally crash into the Pacific Ocean
(CCTV https://bit.ly/3DI6uwa)
The second stage of the Chinese Long March 5B rocket, which was falling without control, finally crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
The uncontrolled deorbit led to the temporary closure of part of the airspace over France, Italy and Spain.
Despite the fact that most satellites or rockets burn out when they re-entry into the atmosphere, fragments still reach the surface of the planet.
Large bodies, such as space stations or spent stages of heavy rockets, pose the greatest danger.
Calculations show that the probability of becoming a victim of a fall of the body of a rocket that has made an uncontrolled entry into the Earth's atmosphere is 10% per decade.
However, so far only one case is known of a fragment of space debris falling on a person, which fortunately did not harm him.
Recently, scandals related to the uncontrolled descent of rocket stages are increasingly associated with Chinese space exploration.
In 2019 and 2020, the stages of the Long March-4B and Long March-5B rockets fell near villages.
Also, last year an uncontrolled reentry into the atmosphere of the stages of the Long March 5B rocket drew criticism from NASA.
YET ANOTHER ROCKET
On October 31, the Long March-5B heavy launch vehicle launched the Mengtian module into space
This became the last module of the basic configuration of the Chinese multi-module space station.
Its second stage, weighing about 21 metric tons, re-entered the atmosphere in the early morning of November 4th.
Due to the uncontrolled nature of the stage deorbit, there was great uncertainty in the position of the stage impact zone
This led to the temporary closure of airspace to aircraft over some cities in northern Spain, Italy and France for several hours.
This case was again heavily criticized by NASA, which accuses China of neglecting security measures.
Ultimately, the wreckage of the stage fell into the Pacific Ocean without harming anyone.
However, one of these days, China won’t be so lucky.
Sources:
- Spacenews.com: https://spacenews.com/long-march-5b-stage-reenters-over-pacific-ocean-after-forcing-airspace-closures-in-europe/
- Space.com: https://www.space.com/china-falling-long-march-5b-rocket-satellite-photo
Wanna save your links for later?
Try this new tool: https://bit.ly/3Wb8Mwe