According to Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital Reentry and Debris Studies (CORDS), it should happen sometime Saturday or Sunday. Then about 5 to 9 tons of space debris from the Long March 5B rocket comes down uncontrollably. According to the experts at CORDS, the chance is nil that the debris will end up in populated areas.
The rocket was used on July 24 to deliver material to the Tiangong space station under construction. The Chinese have already come under criticism from the American space agency NASA that the rocket did not fall apart into smaller parts after use.
The same happened last May. At the time, the same type of rocket also launched part of the Chinese space station, on which no one knew where the debris from the rocket would land on Earth. It then eventually plunged into the Indian Ocean, somewhere near the Maldives.
