A large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean on Sunday
“It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris,” Nasa administrator Bill Nelson, a former senator and astronaut who was picked for the role in March, said in a statement after the re-entry of the Long March 5B rocket.
Hours after China confirmed on Sunday that debris from its largest rocket Long March 5B had disintegrated over the Indian Ocean and landed near Maldives, American space agency Nasa slammed the Chinese administration for failing to meet ‘responsible standards’ regarding space debris. “It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris,” Nasa administrator Bill Nelson, a former senator and astronaut who was picked for the role in March, said in a statement after the re-entry.
Remnants of China’s largest rocket, the Long March, which was launched last week, re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday morning and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean, the country’s state-sponsored media network, the China Central Television (CCTV), reported, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
According to the coordinates provided by Chinese officials of the rocket’s point of impact, the debris now lies west of the Maldives archipelago. The US Space Command had confirmed the re-entry of the rocket over the Arabian Peninsula but said the current location of the debris was unknown.
Earlier, the news had sparked fears over where the large 18-tonne segment of the Chinese rocket was going to come down, leading to a renewed panic over possible damage and casualties amid the prevailing coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic. Uncertainty over the rocket’s orbital decay and China’s failure to issue stronger reassurances in the run-up to the re-entry fuelled anxiety.