What is behind the Chinese rocket case out of this …

China launched on Thursday April 29 the Thiane module, the first of three for its future space station. This item was powered by the cohete Long March 5B, whose body is the one that will land in the next few days, we do not yet know when or where. He was United States the one who issued the warning that he is out of control and poses a risk before the possibility of some of his remains impacting Earth. Beijing is not saying otherwise, but it is downplaying the danger nonetheless.

After the separation of the space module, the rocket launcher began to orbit the planet in a irregular trajectory, slowly loses height. This situation makes almost impossible any prediction on its point of entry into the atmosphere, and therefore from its point of fall.

United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, said to expect the object to fall in an uninhabited place “where it will not harm anyone” and hinted that China neglected to let the rocket body come out of orbit.

“Most of the components will be destroyed” when they enter the atmosphere. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin. He also explained that “the probability of causing damage is extremely low” and that the authorities of that country “will report on the situation in due course”. “China is paying a lot of attention to the re-entry of the rocket to Earth,” he said.

Spatial conflict

China has invested billions of dollars in its space exploration program to follow in the footsteps of the United States, Russia and Europe. So the space has become the most recent scene of the confrontation between Beijing and Washington.

The launch of the first module of the Chinese space station “Celestial Palace” last April, complete with survival equipment and living space for astronauts, marked a milestone in China’s ambitious plans to establish a human presence permanent in space.

President Xi Jinping called it a key step in “building a great nation of science and technology.”

With the withdrawal of the International Space Station (ISS), expected after 2024, that of China would become the only space station in Earth orbit. Chinese space authorities say they are open to foreign collaboration, although they have not specified the extent of such cooperation. The European Space Agency has sent astronauts to China for training so they can work on the Chinese space station when it takes over.

China also announced in March its intention to build a lunar station with Russia.. The facility, slated for the surface or orbit of the Moon, will be equipped for experimental research and will be China’s largest space cooperation project to date.

the Long-running 5B case not the first to spark controversy over alleged lack of control over what China sends into space. Its Tiangong-1 space laboratory disintegrated when it re-entered the atmosphere in 2018, two years after it ceased to function. Chinese authorities have denied losing control of the ship over complaints that this was the reason for what happened.

Washington-Beijing bid is reflected in the media. Technology portal Sina accused the Taiwanese and Western press of sensationalism and of trying to “fool” the world. “While nothing is safe, the chances of the leftovers impacting someone are slim,” the website says

Another portal, Guanwang, acknowledges that the “exaggerations” surrounding the Long March 5B affair “They are only trying to discredit” China. And he adds: “When the remains of the American Falcon 9 fell on a farm in March, Western media said they had come to“ light up the night sky ”. But when it comes to China, they use phrases like “watch out, a Chinese rocket is about to fall violently!”

Expert estimate of the fall

Western experts agree that “the possibility of the remains causing injury or casualties is extremely low.” They argue that debris is most likely to fall outside populated areas and disintegrate when it returns to the atmosphere.

Various organismos monitorean desde hace días el return to the terrestrial atmósfera del gigantesco objeto espacial chino, that tiene una masa estimada de between 17 and 21 toneladas y un tamaño de aproximadamente 30 metros, that lo convierten in uno de los trozos más grandes that vuelven a Earth.

NASA and the US Department of Defense are closely monitoring the trajectory of the rocket. The sensor and radar network of the European Union’s Space Surveillance and Tracking Service is observing the object “closely” and has reduced its window of entry into the Earth’s atmosphere for a period between May 8 and 9. US military experts agree with the prediction that the long March 5B could hit Earth between Saturday and Sunday.

Data from European specialists reveal that the object has an inclination which suggests in principle that the remains or “rubble” of the same would fall in a region of the Earth covered largely by the ocean or uninhabited areas, and indicate that the statistical probability of an impact on land in populated areas “is low”.