BEIJING: Remnants of China’s biggest rocket have landed in the Indian Ocean, with most of its components destroyed upon re-entry into the atmosphere, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit. The coordinates given by Chinese state media, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office, put the point of impact in the ocean yesterday, west of the Maldives archipelago. The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, the first and core module for the construction of China’s space station, blasted off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan on April 29. The US Space command confirmed the re-entry of the rocket over the Arabian Peninsula, but said it was unknown if the debris impacted land or water. The Long March was the second deployment of the 5B variant since its maiden flight in May 2020.

Source: The Star May 10, 2021 00:59 UTC