China decided not to guide the booster back through the atmosphere.
, a nonprofit space research organization, predicted the booster would hit earth around 1:08 p.m. Eastern time, give or take an hour. , you have a better chance of winning the Mega Millions lottery than being struck by the falling space debris, but space debris experts told The Times the minimal risk is still higher than they’d like.RELATED:Aerospace Corporation notes that over 88 percent of the world’s population lives under the reentry's potential debris footprint.
"A reentry of this size will not burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, and the general rule of thumb is that 20–40 percent of the mass of a large object will reach the ground," the organization said on its website. China’s space program is run by the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, and has largely proceeded with the
without other nations’ assistance. The U.S. excluded China from the International Space Station because of its military ties.China has allowed rocket stages to fall back to Earth on their own at least twice before, and was accused by NASA last year of "failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris" after parts of a Chinese rocket landed in the Indian Ocean.
China also drew heavy criticism after using a missile to destroy one of its defunct weather satellites in 2007, creating a massive debris field."Since the development stage of the space engineering program, China has taken into consideration the debris mitigation and return from orbit into atmosphere of missions involving rocket carriers and satellite sent into orbit," Zhao said at a daily briefing Wednesday.
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