The remains of the Chinese Long March 5B rocket fell at 6:50 p.m. Spanish time (4:50 p.m. GMT) in the Indian Ocean after it took off on July 24 from the island of Hainan with the aim of transporting a module to the Chinese orbital space station, the "Tiangong".
As reported by Jorge Lomba, head of the Space Department of the Center for Technological and Industrial Development (CDTI), this Chinese rocket has impacted the Indian Ocean after an uncontrolled re-entry into the atmosphere, where it is most likely to have " disintegrated".
The remains penetrated the Earth's atmosphere and fell in a maritime area located at 119 degrees east longitude and 9.1 degrees north latitude, says a statement echoed by the local newspaper Global Times.
This has been assured by Lomba, who has warned that this type of rocket re-entry into the atmosphere in the United States and Europe is done in a "controlled" manner, so it is known, in the event that it does not disintegrate, where it falls.
The Long March 5B, with an estimated mass of about 20 tons, was traveling uncontrollably at a speed of 28,000 kilometers per hour. However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry had assured throughout the week that the chances of the rocket causing damage to the surface after its fall to Earth were "extremely low".
"In its final stage, the rocket re-enters the atmosphere, where most of its components will be destroyed," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian.
It is not the first time that a Chinese ship has been watched by the international community. In May of last year, it was also a Long March 5B rocket that alerted surveillance services around the world; it ended up almost completely disintegrating and the remains falling into the Indian Ocean, causing no damage.
Three years earlier, in April 2018, the Tiangong 1 orbital laboratory, which had been in disuse since 2016 and was wandering uncontrollably through space, was also monitored; it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean, also without causing damage.
