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Massive Chinese Rocket Long March 5B Falls Blazing Into the Indian Ocean

That sound you’re hearing is a collective sigh of relief: the core of a massive Chinese rocket that’s been falling out of the sky for days reentered the atmosphere this weekend, and crashed into the Indian Ocean.
Long March 5B took off on April 29 and its core reentered atmosphere uncontrolled on May 9, falling into the Indian Ocean 1 photo
Photo: YouTube / CBS News
Last Friday, estimates were not looking good. Even though U.S. and international space trackers agreed that the risks of space debris landing in populated areas was small, the fact that no one could accurately predict where it would fall made for an anxiety-inducing scenario. At best, debris would fall into the ocean or in unpopulated regions of the globe. At worst… well, you’ve seen it in movies, you know what the worst can be.

On Sunday, at 10:24 Beijing time (02:24 GMT), the core of the Long March 5B rocket reentered atmosphere piece by piece. Unconfirmed videos of burning pieces, one as large as a Mack truck, falling into the Indian Ocean, near the Maldives, were posted online. Chinese authorities and the China Manned Space Engineering Office aren’t saying whether any of these pieces hit ground, or if they did, what kind of damage they caused.

NASA, on the other hand, is not happy with how China handled the reentry. “Spacefaring nations must minimize the risks to people and property on Earth of re-entries of space objects and maximize transparency regarding those operations,” a statement from the agency reads (it is included in the CBS video report at the bottom of the page). “China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris.”

On April 29, the Long March 5B rocket took off with a payload that will become the living quarters on China’s next space station. Once the payload was delivered and after it burned up all its fuel, the core of the rocket began its uncontrolled descent, hurling through space until it was dragged back to Earth. This was the second time such a massive object (the core weighed 18 tons) in as many years made an uncontrolled reentry, and it made China a second-time offender.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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