A Chinese-made Long March 5B rocket crashed out of control near Borneo. Here's what the rocket looks like when it's launched.
Long March 5 or its name in China Changzeng 5 is a rocket to launch heavy equipment such as satellites and was developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology.
Currently, there are two variants, namely Long March 5 and 5B. This rocket can carry a load of up to 25,000 kilograms into low Earth orbit. This domestically developed rocket is also China's pride and proves their space technology capabilities.
The first time the first generation of this rocket was launched in November 2016. The Chinese space agency then relied on it to launch various advanced probes towards Mars to the Moon.
This rocket is very sophisticated, but still does not have the capability to control the direction of its fall. Thus, there is a risk that the debris will not completely burn in the atmosphere and cause damage to Earth, although the probability is very small.
A few days ago, China's 22-ton Long March 5B rocket re-entered Earth's atmosphere after "delivering" its payload into orbit, and crashed in the Indian Ocean, near Sarawak, Borneo Island.
The entry of this rocket into Earth's atmosphere has been confirmed by the US Space Command, but at that time they could not confirm the exact location of the fall of the rocket debris, which cannot be controlled. China's Manned Space Agency said the debris from the rocket would fall in the same location, and it was likely that it had already burned down.
The Long March 5B rocket returned to earth after being launched into orbit to deliver the second module of the Tiangong space station on July 24.
This is not the first time the Long March 5B rocket has entered orbit after being launched and crashed into Earth uncontrollably. Two years ago, fragments of a Long March 5B rocket fell off the west coast of Africa, in Ivory Coast.
In May 2021, the Long March 5B rocket again crashed out of control after launching the Tianhe module, which is the core module of the Tiangong space station. Fortunately, this rocket debris fell in the Indian Ocean so there were no casualties.
Nasa Administrator Bill Nelson said China did not provide any information on the trajectory of the rocket debris. "All countries traveling to space must follow established standards, and do their job to provide this kind of information in order to provide accurate predictions of the risk of falling debris, especially for a large vehicle like the Long March 5B, with a huge risk of loss of life and building damage," said Nelson.