Irish sport images provided by Inpho Photography You can obtain a copy of theĬode, or contact the Council, at PH: (01) 6489130, Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or email: images provided by Press AssociationĪnd RollingNews.ie unless otherwise stated. Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice. The Journal supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press The space laboratory Tiangong-1 disintegrated upon re-entry into the atmosphere in 2018, two years after it had stopped working, though Chinese authorities denied they had lost control of the ship. It is not the first time China has lost control of a space craft as it returns to Earth. It could end up breaking apart upon entry, with only smaller debris bits falling to Earth - and even if the rocket falls from the sky mostly intact, there is a good chance it will just splash down into the ocean on a planet made up of 70 percent water.īut neither of those outcomes is certain, and there is a chance the rocket could crash land into an inhabited area or onto a ship. There is a need to “make sure that we take those kinds of things into consideration as we plan and conduct operations” in space, he said.Īfter its separation from the space station module, the rocket began to orbit the Earth in an irregular trajectory as it slowly lost altitude, making any predictions about where it will re-enter the atmosphere or fall back to the ground nearly impossible. The core stage of the first Long March 5B that returned to Earth last year weighed nearly 20 tonnes, surpassed only by debris from the Columbia space shuttle in 2003, the Soviet Union's Salyut 7 space station in 1991, and Skylab in 1979.“I think this speaks to the fact that, for those of us who operate in the space domain, there’s a requirement, or should be a requirement to operate in a safe and thoughtful mode,” said Austin. The latest rocket is one of the largest pieces of space debris to return to Earth, with experts estimating its dry mass to be around 18 to 22 tonnes. Long March 5 rockets have been integral to China's near-term space ambitions - from the delivery of modules and crew of its planned space station to launches of exploratory probes to the Moon and even Mars. The rocket is set to be followed by 10 more missions to complete the station. The Long March 5B - comprising one core stage and four boosters - lifted off from China's Hainan island on April 29 with the unmanned Tianhe module, which contains what will become living quarters on a permanent Chinese space station. One of the largest pieces of space debris to return to Earth The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid published by the official People's Daily, dismissed as "Western hype" concerns the rocket was "out of control" and could cause damage. "It makes the Chinese rocket designers look lazy that they didn't address this," said Dr McDowell, a member of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics. "It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris." "Spacefaring nations must minimise the risks to people and property on Earth of re-entries of space objects and maximise transparency regarding those operations," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement after the re-entry. Last year, pieces from the first Long March 5B fell on Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings. ![]() The Long March launch last week was the second deployment of the 5B variant since its maiden flight in May 2020. "The exact location of the impact and the span of debris, both of which are unknown at this time, will not be released by US Space Command," it said in a statement on its website. The US Space command confirmed the re-entry of the rocket over the Arabian Peninsula, but said it was unknown if the debris hit land or water. Debris from the Long March 5B has had some people looking warily skyward since shortly after it blasted off from China's Hainan island on April 29.
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