By David Shepardson WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Chinese rocket fell back to Earth on Saturday over the Indian Ocean, but NASA said Beijing did not share the “specific trajectory information” needed to know where possible debris might fall. The U.S. Space Administration said the Long March 5B rocket re-entered over the Indian Ocean at about 12:45 p.m. “All space-porting nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow for reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. “This is critical to the responsible use of space and to ensuring the safety of people here on Earth.” Social media users in Malaysia posted videos of what appeared to be missile debris. Aerospace Corp, a nonprofit government-funded research center near Los Angeles, said it was reckless to allow the rocket’s entire core stage — which weighs 22.5 tons (about 48,500 pounds) — to return to Earth. in an uncontrolled reentry. Earlier this week, analysts said the rocket’s body would disintegrate as it plunged into the atmosphere, but it is large enough that many pieces would likely survive a fiery reentry in raining debris in an area about 2,000 km (1,240 miles) across about 70 km (44 mi) wide. The Chinese embassy in Washington did not immediately comment. China said earlier this week it would closely monitor the debris, but said it posed little risk to anyone on the ground. Long March 5B launched on July 24 to deliver a laboratory module to China’s new space station under construction into orbit, marking the third flight of China’s most powerful rocket since its maiden launch in 2020. The story continues Fragments of another Chinese Long March 5B landed in Ivory Coast in 2020, damaging several buildings in the West African nation, although no injuries were reported. Instead, he said, the United States and most spacefaring nations generally pay the extra cost of designing their rockets to avoid long, uncontrolled re-entries — an imperative seen largely since large chunks of the space station fell off. NASA’s Skylab. into orbit in 1979 and landed in Australia. Last year, NASA and others accused China of being opaque after the Beijing government remained silent on the estimated debris trajectory, or re-entry window, of the last Long March rocket flight in May 2021. Debris from that flight ended up landing safely in the Indian Ocean. (Story refiled to remove extra word “said” in paragraph 2) (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Alistair Bell)
