Debris from a Chinese missile fell into the Indian Ocean yesterday, with most components burning up after entering the atmosphere, ending days of speculation, but the United States still criticized Beijing for a lack of transparency.
According to coordinates published in Chinese state media, the remains of the Long March 5B missile fell west of the Maldives.
The US Space Command confirmed the entry of missile debris over the Arabian Peninsula, but said it was not known whether the debris landed on land or in water.
This is the second launch of the variant 5B missile since May 2020 last year, the remains of the first missile fell on the Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings, Reuters reminds.
"States with space launch capabilities must minimize the risks to people and property on Earth from the return of space objects and maximize transparency about those operations," said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, a former senator and astronaut. "It is clear that China is not meeting the appropriate standards regarding their space debris," Nelson said.
Since most of the Earth's surface is covered by water, the chances of space debris hitting populated areas are small, and the possibility of injury is even smaller, according to experts.
However, uncertainty about the rocket's breakup and China's failure to issue stronger assurances ahead of debris entering the atmosphere have caused unease, Reuters writes.
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist from Harvard, told the British agency that the potential zone of debris scattering could be as far north as New York, Madrid or Beijing, and as far south as Chile and New Zealand.
Since large chunks of NASA's Skylab space station fell from orbit in July 1979 and ended up in Australia, most countries have tried to avoid such uncontrolled returns through spacecraft design, McDowell said. "Chinese designers seem lazy because they haven't dealt with it," he said.
Global Times, a Chinese tabloid, dismissed as "Western exaggeration" fears that the missile was "out of control" and could cause damage.
"It is common practice around the world for the upper stages of rockets to heat up during re-entry into the atmosphere," Wang Wenbin, a spokesman for China's foreign ministry, said at a press conference on May 7. "As far as I know, the upper stage of this rocket is deactivated, which means that most of the parts will burn up after entering the atmosphere, which means that the probability of damage to the aircraft or property or activities on the ground is extremely low," Wang said.
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