But keep in mind the Chinese rocket debris is 23 tons or about seven times bigger than the SpaceX space junk.
Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell claims “The Long March 5B core stage is seven times more massive than the Falcon 9 second stage that caused a lot of press attention a few weeks ago when it reentered above Seattle and dumped a couple of pressure tanks on Washington state.”
A Controlled Re-entry
A controlled re-entry is the only way to assure that mission space debris doesn’t cause damage or rain down in a populated area.
Typically, a first-stage expendable rocket doesn’t reach orbital velocity. It immediately reenters the Earth’s atmosphere. And lands in a pre-defined reentry zone.
Often larger, second-stage rockets even perform de-orbit burns to lower altitudes and reduce the in-orbit time. These steps are taken to lower the chance of in-space crashes with other spacecrafts. And to immediately allow re-entry into the atmosphere in a safe zone.
Heads up. Huge rocket looks set for uncontrolled reentry following Chinese space station launchhttps://t.co/tERfS2lFY9
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) April 30, 2021
The mission may result in Chinese rocket debris
On April 28th China sent up the first module for their new space station. But unexpectedly the mission core stage launcher also achieved orbit.
