- Ella Hambley
- Climate and Science Editor
The missile takes off from a base in southern China on July 24, 2022
The debris of a Chinese rocket is expected to fall to Earth tomorrow, Saturday, or the day after it, while returning from space after it got out of control.
The possibility of Chinese missile debris falling in a populated area is a very remote question. However, it raises questions about the responsibility of various countries for the wreckage of their spacecraft.
And the US space agency, NASA, has previously sent invitations to its Chinese counterpart to design its rockets so that their bodies disintegrate into tiny parts upon return, as is followed internationally.
China recently launched a number of missiles towards its unfinished space station, known as “Tiangong”, but it seems that Beijing sometimes loses control and control of these missiles upon return from space.
Last Sunday saw the launch of the “Long March 5” missile carrying a laboratory unit to the Tiangong station.
On Wednesday, the Chinese government said that the return of the missile poses little threat to anyone on earth, because it is most likely that it will fall into the sea. However, there is the possibility of missile debris falling over a populated area, as happened in May 2020 when missile debris destroyed real estate in Ivory Coast.
The rocket’s empty body is now in an elliptical orbit around the Earth where it is being dragged into an uncontrollable return. The rocket is expected to return to Earth around 00:24 GMT on Sunday, or 16 hours before or after, according to the California-based non-profit space consultancy Aerospace.
It is too early to say where the debris of the 25-ton missile has fallen to the ground. According to Aerospace forecasts, the areas where debris is likely to fall expand to include: the United States, Africa, Australia, Brazil, India, and Southeast Asia.
“With regard to the Long March 5 missile, which was launched five days ago, there is no known return plan, just as it was in previous launches,” says expert Sean Goldsborough, director of the British-based Northern Space and Security Company.
Goldsbora told the BBC: “The loss of contact, combined with what could be seen as unexpected results from the two previous launches, is a cause for concern.”
Designing the vehicles to disintegrate upon re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere is a priority for spacecraft operators. This can be done by using materials that melt at low temperatures, such as aluminum.
But that would be costly in the case of missiles. It is common knowledge that the materials used in the manufacture of fuel tanks, such as titanium, require very high temperatures to burn.
Moreover, the size of these spacecraft is usually a problem, especially in the case of the Long March 5 rocket, which weighs more than 25 tons.
However, other space agencies have designed their rockets so that their bodies disintegrate into tiny pieces once they return to Earth, since huge parts of the US Skylab spacecraft fell on Australia in 1979.
After a Chinese rocket uncontrollably returned to Earth, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, “It is clear that China has failed to meet the criteria for its spacecraft wreckage.”
“Space-faring nations must minimize the dangers to people and property on Earth when their spacecraft return, and in turn, must maximize the degree of transparency in those operations,” Nelson added.
The Long March 5 missile, made of the same materials, was previously launched twice, the first in May 2020 and the other in May 2021, carrying different components from the Tiangong station.
On both occasions, debris from the missile’s “core stage” fell to the ground in Ivory Coast and in the Indian Ocean. Before that, in 2018, a prototype of the Chinese missile had fallen into the Pacific Ocean.
None of these falls caused any casualties, but they drew criticism from a number of space agencies.
On Tuesday, the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper accused the Western media of launching a US-led smear campaign against the Long March 5 missile.
In this latest launch, the Long March 5 carried the second of three modules to the Chinese space station.
The 17.9-meter Wentian science lab is the first of two lab units to be housed at the station.
China began building the space station in April 2021, coinciding with the launch of the “Wentian” laboratory unit. Beijing hopes to complete its Tiangong space station by the end of 2022.
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