“The command of the force of space confirms that the long march rocket-5b of the People’s Republic of China has returned to the atmosphere above the Indian Ocean on July 30” at 6 p.m. 45, tweeted the American army on Saturday.
Le Monde with AFP
A segment of the Chinese space rocket launched on Sunday July 24 made its uncontrolled return to the atmosphere on Saturday July 30 and disintegrated above the Indian Ocean, announced the US military, without specifying If the debris had done damage.
“The command of the force of space confirms that the long march rocket-5b of the People’s Republic of China has returned to the atmosphere above the Indian Ocean on July 30” at 6 p.m. 45, tweeted the American army.
For any detail on the dispersion of debris and the exact place of the impact, the American soldiers referred to the Chinese authorities, who launched on July 24 in the space the second of the three modules of its Tiangong space station, which should be fully operational by the end of the year.
Critics
The long march-5b rocket was not designed to control its orbit descent, which, as during the previous launches, aroused criticism.
China “did not give precise information on the trajectory of their long march rocket-5b”, tweeted the boss of NASA on Saturday , Bill Nelson. “All nations carrying out spatial activities should respect exemplary practices” because the fall of objects of this size “presents significant risks of provoking human or material losses”, he added.
Entry into the atmosphere gives off immense heat and leads to friction, segments can then burn and disintegrate, but the biggest machines, like the long step-5b, may not be entirely destroyed. Their debris can then land on the surface of the earth and cause damage and make victims, even if this risk is low, the planet being covered with 70 % of water.
In 2020, debris from another long step had crashed on villages in Côte d’Ivoire, causing damage, but without doing injuries.
The Asian giant has been investing billions of euros for several decades in its space program. China sent its first astronaut in space in 2003. She posed a machine on the hidden side of the moon in early 2019, a world premiere. In 2021, she had a small robot landed on Mars and plans to send men to the moon to 2030.