Remnants of China's biggest rocket landed in the Indian Ocean, with the bulk of its components destroyed upon re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, according to Chinese state media
Parts of the Long March 5B re-entered the atmosphere at 10:24 a.m. Beijing time and landed at a location with the coordinates of longitude 72.47 degrees east and latitude 2.65 degrees north, Chinese state media cited the China Manned Space Engineering Office as saying.Most of the debris was burnt up in the atmosphere, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said.
The Long March launched last week was the second deployment of the 5B variant since its maiden flight in May 2020. Last year, pieces from the first Long March 5B fell on Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings. No injuries were reported. But uncertainty over the rocket's orbital decay and China's failure to issue stronger reassurances in the run-up to the re-entry fueled anxiety.
Ever since large chunks of the NASA space station Skylab fell from orbit in July 1979 and landed in Australia, most countries have sought to avoid such uncontrolled re-entries through their spacecraft design, McDowell said.
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