Once again we find ourselves with the same situation as in 2021 (or as in 2020). The last remnants of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket , one of the largest currently in service, made its re-entry into the atmosphere over the Indian Ocean last year. Although at that time, in May 2021, no one was injured, the truth is that the international scientific community denounced the lack of planning and security on the part of the Chinese space agency, since the re-entry was totally uncontrolled and over an unknown location. . In fact, in May 2020, China launched an experimental crew capsule aboard this very type of rocket and the core stage of that launch ended up falling in a town in the Ivory Coast, or Côte d’Ivoire and had passed directly over New York City shortly before his uncontrolled re-entry.
“Space-active nations must minimize the risks to people and property on Earth from space object re-entries and maximize transparency regarding those operations,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the time. . China responded to the criticism by blaming the US for “exaggerating fears” about the rocket’s re-entry and accusing US scientists and NASA of “acting against their conscience”.
Unacceptable readmissions
The scenario is repeated in 2022. The core stage of a Long March 5B rocket that carried a new module (Wentian) to the Chinese space station called Tiangong 3 currently under construction by the China National Space Administration, has remained in orbit all this time and will make an uncontrolled re-entry over a still unknown location next week. Nobody, at the moment, knows where this stage of the rocket will fall.
And it is that, once the rocket completed the entry of the space module, it began an uncontrolled descent into the Earth’s atmosphere and it is not clear where it will land. It is the third time that it happens and in which China is denounced for not adequately controlling space debris. Being such a large construction, there are about 21 tons of metal, which will break as soon as it enters the atmosphere , there are chances that some pieces, the largest ones, will reach the surface. It’s unlikely to hit anyone on Earth, but the chances are much higher than many space specialists consider tolerable. The last two missions had chaotic re-entries into the atmosphere, hence the concern of what could happen this time. Although the risk of it falling into a densely populated area is very small, there is still a chance of it happening.
The space debris problem
Space debris, like old satellites, enters Earth’s atmosphere daily, though most of it goes unnoticed because it burns up long before it hits the ground. Only the largest space debris, such as spacecraft and rocket parts, poses a risk – albeit a small one – to humans and infrastructure on the ground.
The huge rocket was specially created to deploy components to China’s Tiangong space station, and this latest added laboratory module will boost the station’s scientific study capabilities.
China aims to become a major space power by 2030 to keep up with its rivals, including the US, Russia and the European Space Agency, and create the most advanced space station to orbit the Earth. Tiangong 3 is in low Earth orbit about 425 kilometers above the surface.
