![]() ![]() ![]() China has faced criticism for allowing rocket stages to fall to Earth uncontrolled before. Has China been responsible for similar incidents in the past? The remains of a separate cargo spacecraft that serviced the station fell into a predetermined area of the South Pacific after most of it burned up on re-entry. It was attached on Monday to the Tianhe main module, where three astronauts live. The July 24 launch of the Long March-5B, China’s most powerful rocket, carried the Wentian laboratory into orbit. How did the debris from the Chinese rocket launch hit earth? There was no reported damage in a western Philippine region, where debris from the rocket that boosted part of China’s new space station reportedly fell. “It’s important for people to understand that among the 10 tough things that we do in space, debris re-entry is probably one of the toughest ones to predict,” Dr Darren McKnight from satellite tracking company LeoLabs told Cosmos Magazine. The bus-sized launch section then travels through orbit for days or weeks before re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, the report says. However, China appears not to want to spend weight on the second engine, and its 5B rocket – one of the largest in use – instead pushes fully into orbit before separating. Rockets launched by most nations separate the launcher from the payload before leaving the atmosphere with an extra engine on the payload giving a final boost and allowing the launcher to fall more predictably reports Guardian. But the big concern is when parts of rockets fall to Earth uncontrollably. Objects in lower orbits of a few hundred kilometres return quickly they enter the atmosphere and burn up, which stops them from hitting the ground. Debris or satellites left at higher altitudes of 36,000 kilometres – where communications and weather satellites are often placed in geostationary orbits – can continue to circle Earth for hundreds or even thousands of years, according to NHM. Space junk is created because of the objects launched into space from Earth. It can also refer to smaller things, like bits of debris or paint flecks that have fallen off a rocket, according to the Natural History Museum (NHM), UK. It can refer to big objects such as dead satellites that have failed or been left in orbit at the end of their mission. Space junk, or space debris, is any piece of machinery or debris left by humans in space. China is a repeat offender when it comes to space junk and has faced criticism in the past over its debris, especially objects re-entering Earth. ![]()
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