According to international principles, rockets that return to Earth must be controlled and known for sure
What happened? Short
The Chinese spacecraft nearly burned up on re-entry, but it was not completely destroyed.
In response to all concerns, Zhao Lijian, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said that nothing critical had happened.
Today, China's space program is run by the country's People's Liberation Army. NASA has previously accused the agency of failing to comply with space debris standards.
At the moment, it is known that only part of the Tianzhou-3 cargo ship fell into a safe area, which is located in the South Pacific Ocean.It happened on July 27, the China Space Agency said, but the rest of the rocket is still flyingto Earth.
What rocket are we talking about?
The launch vehicle in question is one of theparts of the March 5B-Y3 rocket. It weighs 23 tons and is considered the most powerful in the country. Earlier, March 5B-Y3 delivered an entire laboratory module to the Chinese orbital station.
Most of the booster will burn out. According to scientists, the probability that space debris will fall into a populated area is small.
However, in 2020, debris from a Long March 5B rocket hit Côte d'Ivoire and damaged several buildings.
Not only China admits that it is possible to dumpto Earth space debris, but this case attracted the attention of the general public. In 2021, NASA said that China is negligent in its space debris handling standards. This happened after the remnants of a Chinese missile fell into the Indian Ocean.
China has been criticized before, back in 2007, when its launch vehicle crashed its own weather satellite.As a result, a lot of debris was formed.
“From the development stage of the programspace engineering, China has taken into account the prevention of space debris, and responsibly returned missions from orbit to the atmosphere using launch vehicles and satellites,” Zhao said at the daily briefing.
According to him, this type of rocket is designed so that most of the components burn up and destroy in the atmosphere.
“The probability of causing damage to the work of aviation or endangering life is extremely small,” he said.
Michael Byers, a professor at the University of British Columbia and author of a recent study on space debris victims, disagrees.
"It's a 20-ton metal object that will disintegrate on re-entry, numerous fragments — some of them quite large and reachthe surface of the Earth," Byers said.
According to him, space debris poses a great danger to people, but it is possible that large parts cancause damage if they fall in populated areas.
He noted that due to the increase inspace debris chance to become a victim of its fall is becoming more and more. At the same time, the probability of landing missiles is about three times higher in the latitudes of Jakarta, Dhaka and Lagos than in New York, Beijing or Moscow.
Earlier, the US excluded China from the International Space Station due to military ties to its space program.
Where and when will the rocket fall?
The remnants of a massive Chinese rocket are expected to fall to Earth early next week, around August 1st. This was stated by the US Space Command, which tracks the trajectory of the rocket.
Aerospace predicts that debris could land over a wide area, covering most of the US, as well as Africa, Australia, Brazil, India and Southeast Asia.
“Because China does not control itsmissiles, there is a non-zero chance of debris falling onto a populated area. More than 88% of the world's population lives in places where this space debris can land," Aerospace said.
Read more:
Scientists filmed a strange creature with tentacles, which they mistook for a flower
The supersonic plane will fly at a speed of 2,000 km/h and cross the ocean in 3.5 hours
Created a quantum computer that "went beyond the binary system"