Chinese rocket out of control will return to Earth; the pentagon watches him

Washington (CNN) -

The Pentagon says it is tracking a large Chinese rocket that is out of control and ready to reenter Earth's atmosphere this weekend, raising concerns about where its debris may impact.

The Chinese Long March 5B rocket is expected to enter Earth's atmosphere "around May 8," according to a statement from Defense Department spokesman Mike Howard, who said the US Space Command is tracking the trajectory of the rocket. rocket.

The rocket's "exact point of entry into Earth's atmosphere" cannot be identified for a few hours after reentry, Howard said, but the 18th Space Control Squadron will provide daily updates on the rocket's location via from the Space Track website.

The Chinese used the rocket to launch part of their space station last week.

While most space debris objects burn in the atmosphere, the rocket's size of 22 tons has raised concerns that large parts could re-enter and cause damage if they hit inhabited areas.

But Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University's Center for Astrophysics, told CNN that the situation "is not the end of the world."

'I don't think people should take precautions.

The risk of damage or impact is quite small, not insignificant, it could happen, but the risk of it impacting you is incredibly small.

So I wouldn't lose a second of sleep over this as a personal threat, ”he said.

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"There are much more important things to worry about."

McDowell explained that pinpointing where the debris could be headed is nearly impossible at this point due to the speed at which the rocket is traveling, even with slight changes in circumstances that drastically change trajectory.

“We hope it will come back in sometime between May 8-10.

And in that two-day period, it goes around the world 30 times.

The thing is traveling at like 30,000 kms per hour.

So if you're within an hour of guessing when it goes down, you're 30,000 kilometers away from saying at what point. "

"So you don't want to believe anyone who says, 'Oh yeah, I heard it fell apart in this particular place,'" McDowell added.

"Don't believe them at least a few hours before re-entry because we just won't know beforehand."

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Still, the ocean remains the safest bet on where debris will land, he said, just because it takes up most of the Earth's surface.

“If you want to bet where on Earth something will land, bet on the Pacific, because the Pacific is the largest part of the Earth.

It's that simple, ”McDowell said.

Concern about space debris comes after China launched the first module of its planned space station Thursday morning from the Wenchang launch site on the southern island of Hainan, according to the China National Space Administration.

China's space station will not launch all at once;

It will be assembled from several modules that will take off at different times.

Chinese state media reports that the country's space station will be fully operational by the end of 2022.

CNN's Katie Hunt contributed to this report.

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