A Chinese rocket that fell uncontrollably back to Earth has disintegrated over the Indian Ocean. The US military has not yet said whether the debris from the Long March 5B launcher caused any damage. Some of the debris burned into the atmosphere.
The rocket was used on July 24 to launch a module for the Tiangong space station, which is now under construction. The Chinese have already come under criticism from the American space agency NASA, among others, that the rocket is not designed for a controlled descent from orbit around the Earth.
The same happened last year. At the time, the same type of rocket launched the first part of the Chinese space station into space and then no one knew where on Earth remains of the rocket would land. They eventually crashed into the Indian Ocean, somewhere near the Maldives.
A spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zhao Lijian, said it was very unlikely that debris would cause damage to aircraft, people and objects on the ground. He said most of the missile’s components would be destroyed upon reentry.