NASA accused China of acting irresponsibly after its rocket crash

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said China “does not meet the standards of liability” for its space debris.. “Countries conducting space activities should minimize the risks to people and property on Earth resulting from re-entry of space objects and maximize the transparency of these operations.”, he denounced with indignation in a short statement published on the NASA website.

Debris from a Chinese rocket launched in late April fell in the Indian Ocean on Sunday after more than a week of speculation on where it would crash on Earth. “It is clear that China does not respect the rules of responsibility for its space debris,” Nelson said.

And I add: “It is essential that China and all nations carrying out space activities act responsibly and transparently in space to ensure the long-term security, stability, protection and sustainability of space activities.”

The wreckage of the Long March 5B finally landed in the Indian Ocean, near the Maldives, according to the Chinese space agency. US Space Command had tracked the remnants of the rocket, a cylinder weighing about 22.5 tons, but models showed that space debris could land anywhere from North America to Africa.

“I think it’s negligence on their part,” said Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge., Massachusetts, which monitors the whereabouts of objects in space. “I think it is irresponsible.”

The room that fell from the sky was part of the central stage of the Great March 5B, designed to lift the large and heavy parts of the space station. Lower stages usually return to Earth immediately after launch. Upper stages that reach orbit restart the engine after releasing their payloads, guiding them as they reenter an unoccupied area, such as the middle of an ocean. In the past three decades, only China has put rocket stages of this size into orbit and then dropped them somewhere at random, McDowell said.

China is planning many more launches in the coming months as construction of the country’s third space station, called Tiangong, or “Heavenly Palace,” is completed. This will require additional flights of the massive rocket and the possibility of more uncontrolled re-entries that people will nervously watch out for, although the risk of impact is minimal.

“It is in the common interest of all nations that we can act responsibly in space to ensure the long-term security, stability and sustainability of our space activities,” said Jen Psaki, spokesperson for the White House, and added that the United States hopes to promote “responsible space behavior.”

Last year, the first launch of a Long March 5B rocket raised a prototype of the Chinese manned space capsule. The propellant of this rocket also made an uncontrolled reentry, and debris fell on a village in Côte d’Ivoire. This drew a rebuke from Jim Bridenstine, who was then the administrator of NASA. “It could have been extremely dangerous,” he said. “We’re lucky because it doesn’t seem like it affected anyone.”

China’s first space station, called Tiangong-1 and launched in 2011, also fell back to Earth in an uncontrolled descent in 2018 before crashing harmlessly in the South Pacific. The following year, the Chinese space administration succeeded in taking the second station out of orbit and directing it towards the Pacific. This time around, the acceleration phase alone is more than twice as massive as Tiangong’s first two space stations.

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