Stunning videos of a massive Chinese rocket that tumbled uncontrollably back to Earth were posted on social media late Saturday.
On July 24, China's Long March 5B rocket delivered the Wentian laboratory module to the new space station. The rocket's 23-ton main stage had since been in an uncontrolled descent and reentered the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean at around 2445 ET, the U.S. Space Command tweeted.
#USSPACECOM can confirm the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Long March 5B (CZ-5B) re-entered over the Indian Ocean at approx 10:45 am MDT on 7/30. We refer you to the #PRC for further details on the reentry’s technical aspects such as potential debris dispersal+ impact location.
— U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) July 30, 2022
"No other country leaves these 20-ton things in orbit to reenter in an uncontrolled way," Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told CNN before the rocket burned up in the atmosphere.
China's handling of the botched re-entry drew criticism from NASA head Bill Nelson.
"The People's Republic of China did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth. All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow," Nelson tweeted.
The People’s Republic of China did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth.
— Bill Nelson (@SenBillNelson) July 30, 2022
All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices, and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow…...