Why Chinese rockets always give a scare in Spain after each launch

Spanish skies are a collateral victim of the Chinese space race.

Every time the Asian power sends a new block of its ambitious space station into space, a few days later the Spanish media are in the position of sending alerts because a giant piece of space junk could fall on our heads.

The explanation is simple, but it has two parts.

On the one hand, China does not care about carrying out controlled re-entries of its rockets once they complete their mission, which is why they fall into chaotic orbits that have even led them to collide with the Moon.

On the other, because that Chinese space debris always collapses following a path that, as seen this Friday, includes Spain.

"It's very simple," says Jorge Lomba, head of the Space department at the Center for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI).

“Every time they send a rocket to their station [Tiangong, “space palace”], they do it from the same place and to the same place, so there is an orbital phenomenon in which the potential entry zone always goes to go through Europe”, explains Lomba, who barely slept last night monitoring this space module.

"China launches them from a latitude where they always end up flying over Spain, just like what happens with Russian rockets," explains Alberto Águeda, coordinator of space surveillance programs at the GMV company.

China carries out its launches from the Wenchang base, on the island of Hainan;

the last, on November 1.

The same day,

The object that threatened the Spanish skies is the central phase of the

which transports the different blocks of the space station that are being assembled in orbit, some 380 kilometers high.

When put into space, this cylindrical module 30 meters long and 5 meters in diameter free falls out of control.

"This rocket is a large fuel tank and an engine, and it is this size because its mission is to put a very large module of the space station into orbit," explains Águeda.

This object was about 20 tons.

The expert adds that there are others, weighing more than five tons, that fall on Earth twice a year.

There are also some of more than a ton that fall every two weeks.

#USSPACECOM can confirm the People's Republic of China Long March 5B #CZ5B rocket re-entered the atmosphere over the south-central Pacific Ocean at 4:01am MDT/10:01 UTC on 11/4.

For details on the uncontrolled reentry's impact location, we once again refer you to the #PRC.

— US Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) November 4, 2022

It's raining space junk all the time, but this module is especially big.

In 2018, the first big scare occurred with the fall of one of these Chinese modules.

In 2021 the alarms sounded again, also in Spain, where the rocket could have fallen with a probability of 0.3%, according to initial calculations.

On that occasion it fell over the Indian Ocean, but NASA accused the Chinese authorities of "not complying with responsible standards regarding their space debris."

In July of this year, the sequence was repeated: Spain was partially threatened after a block of its space station was put into orbit, although the junk disintegrated over Southeast Asia.

The good news is that China has already completed the assembly of the latest Tiangong module.

The bad,

“When we know that they are going to launch, we start following the object, although most of it disintegrates”

Jorge Lomba, CDTI

Since China always plummets that part of the rocket, the only thing left is to keep an eye on the object and hope that it falls into the sea or completely disintegrates by ripping through the Earth's atmosphere at eight kilometers per second, at about 80 or 100 kilometers Tall.

As soon as this brutal friction occurs, which makes the rocket burn, “the fall is very vertical.

To say that it hits with the atmosphere or against the sea is practically the same”, Águeda points out about the situation that occurred this Friday in the South Pacific.

After passing over Melbourne and Tasmania, what was left of the object crashed into Earth at 11:01 a.m. Spanish peninsular time.

control is expensive

"The only thing that can be done is to monitor the process and take action," says Lomba resignedly.

That has been the case in recent hours, given the role played by the CDTI in coordinating the European Space Monitoring and Surveillance System (EU-SST), the body in charge of observing these threats and calculating the risks.

"What Spain did is notify air traffic five hours before the expected time of re-entry: it is better to restrict flights through risk areas before leaving, it is more dangerous to start changing aircraft trajectories in the air," he defends. .

And he adds: “Although the probability is small, the trajectory of 800 aircraft has only been affected for 40 minutes, with an average delay of 33 minutes.”

In the last orbit over the Earth, the radars that monitor the skies were able to rule out that the debris would fall on Europe, says Lomba, thanks to the collaboration of EU-SST with the space command of the US Army. This US command has with a radar capable of detecting the point where Chinese scrap hits the planet and announced it, which considered the crisis settled.

"We have sensors continually looking for the object when it passes overhead, in order to adjust the prediction of the orbit," says Lomba.

A radar from Morón de la Frontera, in Spain, has been important in tracing this trajectory, explains the CDTI expert.

"Since no one has told us that this object is controlled, we have to assume the worst case," adds Lomba.

That's what always happens with these Chinese launches: "When we know they're going to launch, we start following the object, even though most of it disintegrates."

Bill Nelson, NASA administrator, has criticized this in a statement: "Once again, the People's Republic of China is taking unnecessary risks."

“They did not share specific trajectory information that is needed to predict landing zones and reduce risk,” Nelson charged in a statement, noting that it is the fourth uncontrolled reentry since 2020. “It is critical that all nations conducting activities be responsible and transparent in their space activities”, demanded Nelson,

The Chinese space program makes a deliberate decision to drop these modules.

"Controlling reentry would require having some motors in the module that would place it in the area of ​​fall that interests us," explains Águeda, "but that depends on the availability of technology and costs."

"It would require putting in more fuel, so it would be heavier, more expensive and more complex," summarizes the specialist.

Lomba points out that, unlike China, Europe and the US have a "moral obligation" not to drop such dangerous objects in this way.

There is no legislation that requires you to do so.

03:29

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