Chinese missile plunges uncontrolled into the sea a week after launch

A Chinese Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth this weekend and crashed into the sea off Borneo. The return was controversial because China crashed the missile haphazardly and did not share information about where the debris would end up.

The US Space Command confirms that the rocket has entered the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean. The US army unit does not give more details; for that it refers to China. The Chinese space agency says itself on Weibo that the rocket fell back into the Sulu Sea, north of Borneo, but most of it burned up in the atmosphere. It is unknown at what exact coordinates the wreckage fell and how many survived the fall through the atmosphere. Previously published on Twitter footage of what was most likely the missile that fell through the atmosphere.

China received a lot of criticism for the launch, which took place last week. On board was the second module for the Tiangong space station. China’s own Long March rockets sometimes carry payloads into orbit on their first stage. That means that a large part of the total rocket will fall back to Earth, while China sometimes cannot control it. This also happened with two previous Long March 5B launches. Debris came down in 2020 in Ivory Coast. Another debris crashed into the ocean.

That was now the case. China could not say exactly where and when the rocket stage would fall for a week. The country was also widely criticized for refusing to share the missile’s predicted trajectory with international authorities. NASA Chief Bill Nelson hated that attitude earlier this weekend. “All spacefaring nations should follow best practices and do their share in sharing this information so that we can make reliable predictions about the potential impact of debris.” He specifically mentions heavy missiles such as the Long March 5B, which is heavier than its predecessors.