Findings that will revive the critics. Remains possibly from a Chinese rocket, a segment of which returned uncontrollably into the atmosphere on Saturday, have been found near villages in Malaysia and Indonesia.
Among this debris, a ring of charred metal about five meters in diameter was discovered this Sunday in Kalimantan, Indonesia, according to local media. Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said on Twitter that the object appeared to be the exact size of the Chinese rocket’s core stage.
“I have no doubt that it came from the rocket… it is in the right place at the right time and appears to be the right type of rocket,” he added.
Risk of human or material losses
On July 24, China launched the second of the three modules of its space station under construction into space. The machine named Wentian, weighing about 20 tons and without an astronaut on board, was propelled by a Long March 5B rocket. However, the latter was not designed to control his return to Earth, which has drawn criticism.
Their entry into the atmosphere gives off immense heat and causes friction, then parts can burn and disintegrate, but larger machines may not be completely destroyed and land in emerged areas.
“All nations conducting space activities must adhere to best practices” because falling objects of this size “pose significant risks of causing loss of life or property,” NASA chief Bill Nelson tweeted.
Various debris found
The US military announced on Saturday that the rocket had disintegrated over the Indian Ocean. On the same day, residents posted images and videos of debris lighting up the sky as it re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.
This Sunday, local media reported several pieces of debris that fell on dry land. In Sarawak, Malaysia, two families were even evacuated from their homes due to concerns about possible radioactivity, after debris suspected to have come from the Chinese rocket was discovered nearby. The report shows a piece of metal sunk half a meter into the ground.
“A bad idea”
According to astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, of the six largest uncontrolled reentries of the space age, three were recent Chinese rockets.
“You can see that they are different from what other countries are doing today… We understood in the 1970s that leaving 20 to 30-ton machines (uncontrolled) was a bad idea,” he writes.
“China is becoming a major power in space, so we need to find a way to integrate it into the family of space nations and hopefully encourage it to adopt these standards,” he continues. China is regularly criticized for its handling of space. debris.
In 2020, debris from another Long March crashed into villages in Côte d’Ivoire, causing damage but no injuries.
Source: BFM TV
