The re-entry of the Chinese “Long March” space rocket happened uncontrollably.
The colossus crashed near the Maldives.
The US blames China.
Update from May 9, 10:45 a.m.:
As expected, the Chinese rocket crashed on Sunday.
This is confirmed by the Chinese space agency and the government broadcaster CCTV.
She entered the atmosphere around 4:30 in the morning German time.
The 18-ton object broke.
The rocket stage is not completely burned.
The Chinese authorities gave the location of the impact with exact latitude and longitude.
Accordingly, the crash site is located west of the Maldives (72.47 degrees east, 2.65 degrees west).
So the debris fell into the Indian Ocean.
Of course, there was a good chance the parts would hit water.
But only because about 70 percent of the earth is covered with it.
In the end, however, it was luck, criticize international experts.
For cost reasons, China has waived a fuel reserve that would have enabled a controlled crash of the spent rocket stage, it is said.
The rocket transported a module for the Thiane space station.
China rocket crashes uncontrollably: US Secretary of Defense complains about the way it works - criticism also from Harvard
The Chinese authorities described the risk of damage to the earth as low and pointed out that most of the debris would burn on re-entry.
However, they were not completely destroyed in flight.
Particularly from the USA, there is now sharp criticism.
“A ton of metal splinters flying towards the earth at hundreds of kilometers per hour is not good practice,” complains Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at Harvard-Smithsonian.
"I think that speaks for the fact that there is or should be a requirement for those of us who operate in space to work in a safe and well-thought-out manner," said US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, denouncing the carelessness of the Chinese project at.
Debris rain?
China rocket threatens to crash on Sunday - USA does not want to shoot it down
Update from May 7th, 10:35 pm:
The uncontrolled falling Chinese rocket stage "Long March" is expected to enter the earth's atmosphere on Sunday night.
According to its own information, the Russian space agency Roskosmos expects an entry into the atmosphere over the Timor Sea south of Indonesia on Sunday night around 1.30 a.m. CEST.
The US Department of Defense said the time was 1:00 a.m. on Sunday - with a margin of plus or minus nine hours.
According to experts, an exact crash site is difficult to predict.
Since around 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered by water, a landing in the sea is most likely.
However, a crash in an inhabited area or on a ship cannot be ruled out.
Debris rain on the earth?
USA does not want to shoot down China rocket - Beijing rejects warning
Update from May 7, 12.20 p.m.:
Now the US Department of Defense is also dealing with the Chinese missile, the parts of which could fall uncontrollably to earth in the next few days.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin let journalists know on Thursday, US local time, that there were no plans to launch the Chinese Long March 5B space rocket.
"We can do a lot of things, but we don't have a plan to shoot them right now," Austin said.
He didn't say what else the Pentagon could do.
The Pentagon expects the crash on Saturday or Sunday.
An exact crash site is difficult to predict.
“We hope it ends up in a place where it won't harm anyone,” Austin said.
A week ago, the heavy-lift rocket launched the first module of a new Chinese space station.
After separating from the component, the rocket began to orbit the earth in an irregular trajectory and has been slowly losing altitude since then.
Austin indirectly accused China of negligence: "I think that speaks to the fact that there is or should be a requirement for those of us who operate in space to work in a safe and thoughtful mode," the minister said .
Because about 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered by water, landing in the sea is most likely.
However, a crash in an inhabited area or onto a ship cannot be ruled out.
Some international experts warned of a possible rain of debris.
China: missile will simply burn up - "international practice"
China officially rejected warnings of an "uncontrolled" re-entry of the missile on Friday.
It is "very unlikely" that rocket fragments could cause damage, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, when asked by journalists in Beijing.
The rocket stage will burn up and destroy when it re-enters the earth's atmosphere.
"This is international practice."
Whatever happens: Germany is probably not in the risk zone that covers every part of the earth's surface between the 41.5.
Degrees north and 41.5.
Degrees south latitude.
In Europe, this includes parts of Spain, Italy and Portugal.
It also includes regions of North and South America and South Asia as well as all of Africa and Australia.
Large metropolises such as New York, Beijing or Hong Kong are also in this danger zone.
First report from May 6th:
Beijing / Washington / Munich
- China has an ambitious plan: to build its own station in space.
Last Thursday (April 29) a rocket of the type “Long March 5B” brought the core module “Tianhe” (Heavenly Harmony) into space.
Debris from the launch vehicle threatens to fall to earth in the next few days.
Space experts have been warning for days of an "uncontrolled re-entry" of parts weighing tons when entering the earth's atmosphere.
The main rocket stage weighs 20 tons.
The design of the missile of the type "Long March 5B" is responsible for the uncontrolled reentry.
The launcher is built in such a way that it simply re-enters the earth's atmosphere at an arbitrary location by virtue of its gravitational pull.
Experts accuse China of not adhering to today's standards.
It is "negligent".
“We don't know where,” the astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, told the dpa news agency on Tuesday.
"In the worst case scenario, it will be like a small plane crashing and spreading over hundreds of kilometers," said McDowell.
It is uncertain how many fragments of the debris will be left after re-entry.
“But enough to cause damage,” the astrophysicist was certain.
During the first flight of the “Langer Marsch 5B” launcher, debris damaged several houses on the Ivory Coast.
That was in May 2020.
+
China wants to build its own space station: the Langer-Marsch-5B-Y2 launcher has brought the core module “Tianhe” (Heavenly Harmony) into space.
© Anonymous / CCTV via AP Video / dpa
China: No danger from rocket debris
China is now rejecting the danger of falling rocket debris.
The fragments are "very likely to fall into international waters, and people needn't worry," wrote the
Global Times
newspaper, often serving as an English-language propaganda organ,
on Thursday, referring to space experts.
The fact that the remains of rockets fell back to earth was "common in the aerospace industry," wrote the
Global Times
.
The paper saw behind the warnings "nothing more than Western hype about a 'threat from China'" in space technology.
The expert Wang Ya'nan, editor-in-chief of an aerospace magazine, was quoted as saying that China's space agencies had taken the risk of falling debris into account - when designing the rocket, choosing the launch site and the flight path.
+
Danger from the world dream: China rejects worries about wreckage of its missile.
© Ju Zhenhua / via AP / dpa
China: According to experts, debris burns up when it re-enters the earth's atmosphere
"Most of the debris will burn when it re-enters the earth's atmosphere, leaving only a very small part that falls to the earth, which will potentially end up in areas far away from human activity or in the ocean," said Wang Ya'nan.
According to the
Global Times
,
experts also stated
that the rocket stage was built primarily from lightweight material that usually just burns on reentry.
China: Tiangong Space Station (Sky Palace)
China wants its space station "Tiangong" (Heavenly Palace) to be completed "by 2022".
From the space station in Wenchang, modules are brought into space with launch vehicles of the “Long March 5B” type.
If the technically obsolete international space station ISS goes out of service as planned in the coming years, China would be the only nation with a permanent outpost in space.
China lost control of the Chinese space laboratory Tiangong 1 (Heavenly Palace) in 2018.
Where the debris, which can weigh up to 100 kilograms, enters the earth's atmosphere, it had long been unclear, as
Merkur.de *
reported.
The orbit of Tiangong 1 was then tracked around the world.
(dpa / AFP / ml / ck) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
List of rubric lists: © Anonymous / CCTV via AP Video / dpa
