Chinese missiles dropped components from the air on the ground

Last week, China's space program launched a new rocket, promising to help the country expand major projects in low-Earth orbit. The Long March 5B rocket is equipped with a new compartment, used to send astronauts into orbit. However, it seems that it has dropped a fairly large metal object on a town in Ivory Coast.

Local sources said residents heard a loud explosion, and later discovered the missile component was lying on the ground. Fortunately, no one was injured.

Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Institution, which monitors orbital activity, has shown that the path of the rocket - which was "brought to the market" after successfully transporting the storage chamber. orbit - should only fly past the said town.

The path of the rocket (orange) when falling to the ground according to McDowell's forecast

Typically, the missile body will be dropped into open ocean after completing the mission, or be directed into the orbit of the ghost orbit (orbit orbit) orbit, where they are no longer at risk of affecting images. for humans or other spacecraft. However, China has long been famous for being negligent and regularly dropping rocket parts into densely populated areas near its own launch sites.

In this case, the design of the rocket makes things even more difficult. Instead of using two-stage rockets, Long March 5B has only one core and four disposable thrusters. It means that the body of the rocket goes into orbit and then returns to the Earth's atmosphere will be unusually large. Usually, the first floor, which is larger in size, will be destroyed at the beginning of the mission, leaving only the second, smaller layer, in orbit. China's space engineers are likely to face international pressure, forcing them to re-adjust their missile structure to ensure future missions do not spill the universe on nations. another - in this case, their spacecraft flew past New York City less than an hour before falling back into the atmosphere.

Chinese rockets caused a major explosion when it landed in Ivory Coast

McDowell said that this rare event was the largest reintroduction of the atmosphere since the Soviet space station fell in 1991. When satellites or space stations are old enough to age. " retirement, "engineers will try to drive them to a remote part of the South Pacific, called the" spacecraft cemetery ". The "residents" at this cemetery include Mir space station, many unmanned spacecraft used in China's first supply missions and space station - Tiangong-1 - which had fallen into Thai Binh. Duong not long ago, but the location fell away from this graveyard . a few thousand kilometers.

Reference: Quartz