Space / 01 August 2022
China sticks the landing
Last weekend, China launched a Long March 5B rocket carrying the 2nd of 3 modules that China needs to complete its new Tiangong space station. That’s all fine, except the massive main-core stage, which weighs 22.5 tonnes, made an uncontrolled return to Earth yesterday. China didn’t share any information with other nations or space agencies about where the possible debris was set to fall. “All space-faring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said. “Doing so is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensure the safety of people here on Earth.” China said it was closely tracking the debris and that it posed little risk to anyone on the ground – what was left splashed down somewhere in the Indian Ocean near Sarawak in Malaysia. As long as it wasn’t in the Snowy Mountains, which has had its share of space junk recently…
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