Debris from a Chinese rocket hitting Earth

The Long March 5B rocket launched by China last Sunday delivered the second module to the Chinese space station. In a few hours, debris from the launch vehicle may fall to Earth.

This is reported by a US non-profit organization whose scope of activity includes the observation of space objects. According to experts, the fall time is approximately 6 pm GMT, but the time window is approximately five hours.

In the danger zone – all of Africa, Southern Europe and South Asia, India, China, a significant part of both Americas. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that most of the launch vehicle will burn up in the atmosphere, so the likelihood of large debris falling to Earth is negligible.

However, Chinese rocket fragments have already fallen to the ground twice – in India and in West Africa. Fortunately, then the fall occurred in sparsely populated areas, so there were no casualties.

Experts believe that part of the rocket fragments will not burn up in the atmosphere and a spent stage 30 meters long and weighing 22 tons will fall on an area of 2000 by 70 km. The problem is that the Chinese side does not provide a controlled descent of the rocket and experts believe that it will not completely burn up in the atmosphere, part of its rather large fragments will fall to the surface on Sunday, July 31, reports science alert.