The Chinese Long March 5B rocket gone out-of-control and crashed down to earth on Saturday. The rocket was reentered the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean before crashing somewhere near the Malaysian state of Sarawak on the Island of Borneo.
The rocket launched on July 24, taking the second module (Wentian) to the Tiangong space station. The module contained equipment that allows the astronauts to perform scientific experiments, as well as three extra spaces to sleep and another airlock for spacewalks.
This such incident occurred third time with Chinese rocket science. The Long March 5B rocket was 100 foot long and the weight of 22 ton. As planned, the Long March 5B core booster detached from the rocket when it reached space. Unlike most modern rockets, the part doesn’t reignite its engine to make a controlled re-entry.
US Space Command tweeted that the Long March 5B rocket re-entered the atmosphere at 12:45 PM ET on Saturday. China said it re-entered just off the coast of Palawan Island, part of the Philippines, and that most of the debris burned up over the Sulu Sea between the Philippines and Malaysia.
People in several parts of Malaysia saw the rocket fragments and captured video of them falling to Earth. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said the debris would land near Sibu, Bintulu, or Brunei, cities located along the northern coast of Borneo.
