In May 2020, the out of control Chinese rocket eventually impacted portions of western Africa. This is approximately the same size as 4 school buses, parked 2 by 2. The spent rocket stage is roughly 100 feet long by 16 feet wide. While experts believe much of the large spent rocket stage will burn-up upon re-entry, it is possible some parts of it, such as its massive motors, may survive re-entry and impact Earth. However, as was the case when China launched space station components in 20, it appears the spent Long March 5 main stage will tumble back to Earth in an uncontrolled manner, potentially threatening some location on the planet with an impact. Prior to such an event, NASA in partnership with local government agencies, put the projected splash-down area as a “no-fly” / “no-boat” area until the debris is safely down. In the United States, such launches lift-off from launchpads near water, allowing spent rocket stages to tumble back to the ocean. Previous rocket stages have crashed into people’s homes in China. The Wenchang facility on Hainan Island allows launch vehicles to soar over the South China Sea previous launches lifted-off from inland launch facilities, forcing used rocket stages to fall onto land. The Long March 5b launches from a spaceport on Hainan Island in southeastern China. The Long March 5 core stage has roughly 7x the mass of the Space X Falcon 9 second stage. The massive rocket that was used to bring the GOES-R and GOES-S weather satellites to orbit was a ULA Atlas V despite its size, it’s considerably smaller and less powerful than the Long March 5.
The Long March 5, developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, roughly matches the capabilities of American rockets like the ULA Delta IV Heavy and the SpaceX Falcon Heavy. Hainan Island is home to several high-end resorts the sparsely populated island in southern China is also home to a sophisticated spaceport. With the ISS due to be retired in the coming years, Tiangong may remain as the only working space station in Earth’s orbit. Unable to participate in the International Space Station (ISS) due to restrictions imposed by the United States, China has embarked on building their own called “Tiangong.” Construction on the space station is due to be completed later this year after another scheduled October launch of a Long March 5B rocket brings the Mengtian module to space. On July 24, China launched their massive Long March 5B rocket to deliver the Wentian experiment module to China’s Tiangong Space Station. Because the rocket is out of control and moving erratically, experts aren’t sure exactly where it will land until an hour or two before it does because it’s moving at speeds of over 15,000 mph, it may be too late to warn people of the impending impact zone.ĭespite international condemnation of China’s last out-of-control rocket which struck Earth in May of last year, which followed another similar impact in May of 2020, China has not employed any new technology or safety mechanisms to steer the rocket back to Earth safely, as SpaceX rockets do, or deposit rockets in the South Pacific ocean far from any land mass or ocean shipping routes, as what most rocket launchers around the world do when sending satellites into space. As the rocket re-enters the atmosphere, parts of it will break off and burn up but due to its huge size, some dangerously large pieces are likely to reach the surface experts believe at least 20-40% of the rocket will impact Earth. The ten-story tall 20-ton rocket is expected to crash sometime this weekend, however experts aren’t sure where exactly it will impact or what will be left of the rocket when it does. This is the third time in as many years China has launched a massive rocket into space with no plans to safely return it to Earth. Image: Aerospace CorporationĪn out-of-control spent rocket launched by China in recent days is racing back towards Earth and what’s left could strike somewhere within the United States this weekend.
The white line is a day/night divider at the middle of the reentry window, with the Sun location shown by a white Icon reflecting where the brightest part of day is around the world. The blue line is the ground track uncertainty prior to middle of the reentry window while the yellow line is the ground track uncertainty after middle of the reentry window. The yellow Icon reflects the location of the object at the midpoint of reentry window while the orange line is the area of visibility at the predicted reentry time for a ground observer this area will be regularly refined as the impact zone and time is reforecast. Right now, impact can occur along any yellow or blue line on this map of the world, with many of those lines passing through the United States. Aerospace Corporation is tracking the out-of-control Chinese rocket and is predicting where it could crash.
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