NASA denounced China for "failing to meet responsible standards" after debris from an uncontrolled rocket re-entered Earth's atmosphere late Saturday evening.Chinese state media, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office, reported that the debris landed in the Indian Ocean, west of the Maldives, according to Reuters.Most of the debris burned in the atmosphere, the office added.The U.S. Space Command confirmed the rocket's re-entry on.
For its part, China also asserted on the same Friday that it was
“highly unlikely” that the rocket debris caused damage on its return to Earth and that it was most likely that it disintegrated during its re-entry into the atmosphere.
Some local Chinese media went even further and accused the foreign press of sensationalism., and portals such as Sina or Guanwang described the information published in this regard as “exaggerations that only seek to discredit the Asian country.”
The rocket was used last week by China to launch one of the modules d
e its future space station and was considered by experts as one of the largest pieces of debris that would re-enter the atmosphere, hence its continued surveillance.
Much-talked About Chinese Rocket Crashes Near The Maldives Published by GulteDesk May 09, 2021
The high-drama of the Chinese rocket landing has come to an end. Earlier today, the Chinese Space Agency announced that the large segment of the rocket re-entered the earth’s orbit and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean near the Maldives. This news came in as a relief as there were a lot of speculations for the last few days about where will this rocket land.
Recently, China claimed that there was not much risk from the free-falling segment of the Long March 5B Rocket, which had launched the first module of China’s new space station into earth’s orbit on April 29. The official statement from China Manned Space Engineering Office read, “After monitoring and analysis, at 10:24 (0224 GMT) on May 9, 2021, the last-stage wreckage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 launch vehicle has re-entered the atmosphere.”