Huge Chinese rocket accidentally flew into low orbit and may soon crash into Earth



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The launch of China’s Long March 5B rocket last week was mostly successful.

The module is forming the first of 11 parts of China’s “Tianhe” or “Heavenly Harmony” space station – but the thruster and tanks that launched the rocket are not where they are supposed to be.

The boosters were supposed to fall to earth in a planned area above the ocean, but inadvertently flew into orbit.

What goes up must come down, and that means the gigantic “central stage” (a term for the “backbone” of a rocket, including tanks and thrusters) – measuring 98 feet long and 16 feet wide – is now out of control and ready to make an uncontrolled re-entry somewhere on Earth at any time, SpaceNews reports.

The event will mark one of the largest man-made objects to make an uncontrolled re-entry into space travel history.


It is not yet clear why the launcher did not detach earlier over the ocean as expected, but a similar error happened to a Chinese rocket last year. This launcher would eventually have fallen in the Atlantic Ocean and over West Africa, debris that could cause damage to villages in Côte d’Ivoire. No casualties were reported.

The central stage, which includes four side boosters, has a mass of about 21 tons.

Spaceflight observer Jonathan McDowell told SpaceNews that this was the fourth largest unplanned equipment reentry incident.

“The main stage of Long March 5B is seven times as massive as the second stage of the Falcon 9 which garnered a lot of press attention a few weeks ago when it came back over Seattle and threw some pressure tanks over Washington state, ”McDowell told the publication. .

“I think by current standards it is unacceptable to let him in in an uncontrolled manner. Since 1990, nothing over 10 tonnes has been deliberately left in orbit to reenter uncontrollably, ”he added.

The gigantic central stage, comparable in height to a 10-story building, can partially burn on re-entry, and the debris from the booster is very likely to fall into the ocean or onto uninhabited areas. This leaves a small but real chance that the falling debris could threaten human lives and property.

Tanks and thrusters currently revolve around Earth at a speed of more than 4.4 miles per second and are monitored by US military radar, SpaceNews reports. The debris flashes periodically, suggesting that it is falling apart and out of control. Surviving objects will fall vertically after deceleration and move at terminal speed, according to the post.

The largest and most notorious similar incident occurred in 1979 when NASA’s 76-ton Skylab re-entered, which scattered debris across the Indian Ocean and Western Australia.

The Long March 5B thruster’s 41.5 degree orbital tilt means the rocket body passes a little further north than New York and as far south as New Zealand, so reentry could occur n anywhere in the world between these latitudes.

A nocturnal reentry, however, could make for a spectacular visualization, as with a recent reentry of the second stage of SpaceX’s Falcon 9, which was supposed to burn over the Pacific Ocean but made an uncontrolled reentry over the north. -western Pacific. This incident produced a spectacular light show and dropped a pressurized tank on a farmer’s field, luckily no casualties.

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