7/16/2023 0 Comments Chinese spaceship falling to earth![]() ![]() But there are rules that dictate who is responsible when it comes to damage or injury from space junk.Īccording to Christopher Johnson, the space law advisor for Secure World Foundation, there are two key articles that explain this: the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and 1972 Space Liability Convention. There’s no law that forbids pieces of rocket from crashing to Earth’s surface. But what happens if rocket debris causes some sort of damage or harm? Space lawyers say there’s legal precedent for China to face consequences, but like anything in world politics, the reality is much, much messier. Most likely pieces of the core stage will wind up in the ocean, given that it covers most of the planet. It’s all pretty ambiguous, to say the least.īut despite all the unknowns, there’s no huge reason to panic. Current predictions suggest it will make an uncontrolled reentry somewhere as far north as New York and as far south as New Zealand, sometime between May 8 and 10. Unsurprisingly, many space experts have been trying to figure out when and where the rocket will come down. It’s unclear whether the rocket tried and failed to deorbit itself safely, or whether it even had the capability to do so to begin with. Though the launch successfully sent Tianhe to its planned destination, the 30-meter-long (100 feet) core stage is now tumbling uncontrollably back to Earth. On April 29, China launched Tianhe-the core module for its new space station-on a Long March 5B rocket. Debris from the rocket fell north of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.Ī 25-ton rocket the size of a blue whale is hurtling toward Earth, and no one really knows what’s going to happen next. “The rocket debris caught fire while entering the earth’s airspace and the movement of the burning debris also crossed the Malaysian airspace and was detected in several areas, including crossing the airspace around the state of Sarawak,” the agency said.ĬNN’s Yong Xiong and Heather Chen contributed to this report.Update: China's Tianhe rocket stage reentered Earth's atmosphere on May 9. On Sunday, Malaysia’s National Space Agency released a statement confirming that “burnt debris” from the Chinese Long March 5B rocket had been detected. ![]() local time, which is the same as Beijing time. Vanessa Julan, a local resident, shared with CNN a video she had taken around 12:50 a.m. Videos and photos posted online appeared to show several bright objects streaking across night skies above the city of Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia. “That may take a little while longer for the reports to filter back.” “What we really want to know is did any pieces actually end up sitting on the ground,” McDowell told CNN. The agency added most of the remnants burned up during the reentry process over the Sulu Sea, which is between the island of Borneo and the Philippines. Sunday Beijing time – or about 12:55 p.m. In a statement, the China Manned Space Agency said remnants of the rocket reentered the atmosphere at about 12:55 a.m. “Doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensure the safety of people here on Earth,” he added. “All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property,” Nelson said. Li Gang/Xinhua/Getty Imagesĭebris from massive Chinese booster rocket could fall to Earth early next week The Wentian lab module was launched atop a Long March 5B rocket from Hainan Island at 2:22 p.m. In a Saturday statement on Twitter, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson wrote China “did not share specific trajectory information” as the rocket fell back to Earth. “No other country leaves these 20-ton things in orbit to reenter in an uncontrolled way,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told CNN’s Jim Acosta Saturday afternoon. The rocket had since been in an uncontrolled descent toward Earth’s atmosphere – marking the third time that China has been accused of not properly handling space debris from its rocket stage. local time Sunday, July 24, and the module successfully docked with China’s orbital outpost. The Chinese 23-ton Long March 5B rocket, which delivered a new module to its space station, took off from Hainan Island at 2:22 p.m. ET Saturday, the US Space Command said on Twitter. ![]() Remnants of a massive Chinese rocket that was descending uncontrollably back to Earth reentered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean at roughly 12:45 p.m. ![]()
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