DEBRIS of the recently launched Chinese Long March 5B carrier rocket fell back to Earth, into the Indian Ocean, yesterday morning, and most of the remnants burnt up during the re--entry process, the China Manned Space Agency said.

The debris’ atmospheric re-entry and crash took place at 10:24 a.m., the agency said in a brief statement, noting the touchdown site is in waters located at 2.65 degrees north latitude and 72.47 degrees east longitude. It did not provide additional details.

Based on the coordinates the agency gave, the site is in waters near Maldives.

About 30 minutes before the crash, the agency published a notice saying the re-entry would occur sometime between 9:57 and 10:27 a.m.

The final return put an end to concerns on possibility of debris crashing over an inhabited area after many foreign media had published reports about what they called “an uncontrolled re-entry” of the Long March 5B that lifted the core module of China’s space station April 29.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a news briefing Friday afternoon that China was paying close attention to the atmospheric re-entry of the rocket’s core stage.

“As far as I know, this type of rocket has unique designs (to make sure) that most of its parts will be burnt up during the re-entry process,” he said, adding that it is highly unlikely that the debris will cause any harm to aircraft activity or ground-based assets and personnel.

A Long March 5B is 53.7 meters long, with a core-stage diameter of 5 meters. The rocket is propelled by liquid oxygen, liquid hydrogen and kerosene, with a liftoff weight of about 849 tons.

The rocket is the most powerful Chinese launch vehicle when it comes to carrying capacity to the low-Earth orbit. It is essential to China’s space station program because it is now the only Chinese launch vehicle capable of carrying large space station parts to orbit.

(China Daily)