A Chinese rocket that was disintegrating over Kuching, Malaysia, was caught on camera by a social media user.
Launched on July 24, the Long March-5B Y3 rocket came back to Earth on Saturday and crashed in the Indian Ocean. The video, which was posted on Twitter with the phrase “Meteor sighted in Kuching!” depicts the rocket rocketing across the sky until it burst into flames in the atmosphere.
The third launch of China’s most potent rocket since its first launch in 2020, the Long March 5B blasted out on July 24 to transport a laboratory module to the new Chinese space station being built in orbit. The Long March 5B wreckage from a massive Chinese rocket that came to earth over the Pacific and Indian oceans put an end to more than a week of widespread panic and fear.
Chinese Rocket Debris Fell Into The Indian Ocean Without Any Warning
There were worries that the rocket’s 22-tonne core stage might crash into a populated area as it hurtled wildly back to earth. Although it received harsh criticism for the hazards associated with its rocket re-entry, China rejected these worries.
In the event that they do attain orbit, a costly de-orbit maneuver is needed to allow for a guided, controlled return utilizing an engine burn. The orbital core stage performs an uncontrolled descent without a deorbit maneuver. Chinese Long March 5B rocket core stage fragments are known to make such violent, chaotic descents back to earth. The variation in the mission’s chronology, in which the core stage enters orbit before crashing back, is the cause.
According to a study in the Guardian, the majority of countries’ rockets detach the launcher from the payload after leaving the atmosphere. The cargo is then given one last boost by an additional engine. However, the study notes that China’s 5B series launches directly into orbit without the need for a second engine.
Long March 5B fragments are believed to have landed in Ivory Coast in May 2020, while Chinese rocket fragments plunged uncontrollably into the Indian Ocean in the Maldives in May of the following year.
