Chinese rocket plunges uncontrollably into sea a week after launch

A Chinese Long March 5B rocket has fallen back to Earth this weekend and ended up in the sea off Borneo. The return was controversial, as China dropped the missile indiscriminately 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 American army unit does not provide more details; before that it refers to China. The Chinese space agency itself says on Weibo that the rocket has fallen back into the Sulu Sea, north of Borneo, but that most of it has burned up in the atmosphere. It is unknown at what exact coordinates the wreckage landed and how many survived the fall through the atmosphere. Appeared on Twitter earlier images of what was most likely the rocket that fell through the atmosphere.

China has been criticized 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 send payloads into orbit with their first stage. That means that a large part of the total rocket falls back to Earth, while sometimes China can’t keep control of that. 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. For a week, China could not say exactly where and when the rocket stage would fall. The country has also been criticized for refusing to share the projected course of the missile with international authorities. NASA boss Bill Nelson hated that attitude earlier this weekend. “All spacefaring nations should follow best practices and do their part in sharing this information so that we can make reliable predictions about the potential impact of waste.” He specifically mentions heavy rockets such as the Long March 5B, which is heavier than its predecessors.