A giant piece of a Chinese rocket crashed to Earth in a wild fall

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A giant piece of a Chinese rocket crashed to Earth in a wild fall

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The wreckage of a giant segment of a Chinese rocket landed this week in the Atlantic Ocean, representing the largest uncontrolled descent of a piece of artificial space debris from decades.

The central stage of a Chinese Long March Rocket 5B (CZ – 5B), Was successfully launched on May 5, he spent several days in orbit as part of his mission, before entering the Earth's atmosphere and falling on Earth, splash

in oceanic waters off the west coast of Mauritania in northwest Africa.

The descent, which was ultimately confirmed by the 18th Space Control Squadron, a unit of the US Air Force. In the United States, he was notable not only for its massive mass, but also for the extent of the uncontrolled descent window, which allowed trackers of space objects to guess where and when the control rocket would end. by land.

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"With 17.8 tonnes, it is the most massive object to make an uncontrolled return from 39 tonnes Saliout – 7 in 1991, unless you plan to OV – 102 Columbia in 2003, " tweeted Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Although the CZ-5B rocket may not have been controlled, it was not unexpected. Throughout history, space launches have involved a large number of spaceships and components re-enter the Earth's atmosphere as debris, sometimes in controlled or partially controlled maneuvers, but often in uncontrolled descents.

Still, McDowell says the CZ-5B accident was an unusual event. "I have never seen a major comeback pass through so many large cities!" he tweeted.

Fortunately, the parts of the central stage 30 meters long (98 feet) that did not burn during the re-entry did not end up falling on inhabited land. This was considered a vague possibility, as observers speculate that the rocket wreckage could land in Australia, the United States. USA or Africa.

While such an event could almost certainly result in loss of life, such an incident is generally considered unlikely, given the size of the Earth which constitutes uninhabited ocean land. In any case, McDowell minimizes the dangers.

"For a large object like this, dense parts like parts of rocket engines could survive the re-entry and crash on Earth." McDowell told CNN.

"Once they have reached the lower atmosphere, they travel relatively slowly, so the worst case is that they can get out of a house."

The CZ-5B was launched last week to transport a prototype experimental spacecraft, called New generation Chinese manned spaceshipwho successfully landed on Earth after a few days of orbital testing.

"The successful landing of the new spacecraft from a high orbit also shows that China is serious about sending astronauts beyond the low Earth orbit, something that only NASA has accomplished, and ultimately send its astronauts to the Moon. "reported Andrew Jones, a reporter for SpaceNews. he said to AFP

.