A large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere. The segment disintegrated over the Indian Ocean on Sunday according to the saying of the Chinese space agency.
Long March-5B rocket launched the first module of China’s new space station into Earth orbit on April 29. Officials in Beijing had said there was little risk from the segment of the rocket. the US space agency NASA and some experts speculated over where the 18-ton object would come down without firm evidence. They said China had behaved irresponsibly as an uncontrolled re-entry of such a large object could have risked damage and casualties.
The China Manned Space Engineering Office said in a statement that most of the segment disintegrated and was destroyed during descent. It added coordinates for a point in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.
The segment’s descent matched expert predictions that any debris would have splashed down into the ocean, given that 70 percent of the planet is covered by water. There was widespread public interest and speculation about where the debris would land because it was an uncontrolled descent. American and European space authorities were among those tracking the rocket and trying to predict its re-entry.
