Another Chinese Rocket Could Be Headed for a Dangerous Uncontrolled Reentry

A strong rocket is about to blast off from Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan on a mission to increase China’s first house station. Similar to earlier launches of the Long March 5B, nonetheless, the rocket might carry out a harmful uncontrolled reentry on its return.

China is within the midst of developing its Tiangong house station—the nation’s reply to the International Space Station—with one of many station’s modules already in place. China’s house company is gearing as much as launch the station’s Wentian module, which is about to happen this Sunday July 24 from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Hainan.

Space.com experiences that China started the rollout of its Long March 5B rocket—a 174-foot-tall (53 meters) and 1.87-million-pound (848,220 kilograms) rocket—to the launchpad over a two hour interval on Monday. Once launched, the Wentian module will rendezvous with the Tianhe module in low Earth orbit, the place Tianhe’s robotic arm will transfer Wentian into its last place. Three Shenzhou-14 astronauts will greet the module upon its arrival.

The Long March 5B rocket is considerably infamous, because it’s the identical mannequin of out-of-control rocket that hurtled uncontrollably again to Earth final spring, with particles ultimately touchdown within the Indian Ocean close to the Maldives. It might’ve been a lot worse, because the potential existed for particles to land on inhabited areas. And in reality, this exact thing occurred following the May 20, 2020 launch of a Long March 5B rocket, with particles falling onto the west coast of Africa and damaging some constructions (fortunately nobody was harm). A current examine suggests there’s a 10% threat within the subsequent decade that falling rocket elements will trigger casualties, so that is hardly idle discuss.

Gizmodo requested Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist on the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, if one other uncontrolled reentry of Long March 5B rocket elements is feasible. “I would say it is almost certain,” he replied through electronic mail. “I will be very pleasantly surprised if they have changed the core stage design. I expect they have not and we are up for another ride like the last time.”

With the launch and placement of Wentian, Tiangong can be midway accomplished. Tianhe, the primary module whose identify interprets to “Harmony of the Heavens,” was launched in April 2021, and can function the station’s life help, dwelling quarters, management heart, and docking hub for the remaining modules. Wentian, or “Quest for the Heavens,” will function further crew quarters, however the primary objective of the module is to function a base for scientific analysis. Two extra modules—Mengtian and Xuntian—are scheduled to launch in October 2022 and through an unspecified launch in 2023.

China is ramping up its efforts to poise itself as a major actor in house, however the nation is establishing a observe file of behaving badly alongside the way in which. Hopefully issues will go easily for the upcoming launch, however for China, the uncontrolled reentry of Long March 5B rockets could also be a function and never a bug, and that’s unhappy.

More: What to Know About Lunar Gateway, NASA’s Future Moon-Orbiting Space Station