The Manila Times

China’s Long March rocket debris falls back to Earth

DEBRIS from China’s Long March-5B Y2 carrier rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 10:24 a.m. on Sunday with most parts burnt off during the process, China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) said.

The location of re-entry is 72.47 degrees east longitude and 2.65 degrees north latitude, CMSA noted in a statement on Sunday.

Song Zhongping, an aerospace expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times that it is “completely normal” for rocket debris to return to Earth, and is a common practice carried out by global participants in the aerospace field, including China and the US.

As China’s launch vehicle is mainly made of lightweight materials, most of it will be easily burnt up by the dense air in the atmosphere following its high-speed re-entry, space insiders explained.

The environmentally friendly fuel used by China’s Long March-5B Y2 rocket will not result in water pollution if the debris falls into the ocean, space experts added.

The probability of harm caused by the rocket, which sent the first section of China’s space station Tianhe core module into orbit on April 29, is “extremely low,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Friday amid continuous Western hype of the dangerous “out of control” re-entry.

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2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-05-10T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281861531380513

The Manila Times