China’s most powerful rocket to crash on Earth this week; India in danger?
- IndiaGlitz, [Saturday,July 30 2022]
Debris from a powerful Long March 5B Chinese rocket is set to crash on different parts of Earth this weekend. According to a prediction by the Aerospace Corporation, the possible debris field includes much of the United States, as well as India, Africa, Australia, Brazil, and Southeast Asia.
However, China has reportedly ruled out the possibility of any danger to human beings and claimed that the possibility of the rocket landing in any populated area is extremely low and that it would most likely land in the sea. “Our latest prediction for #CZ5B rocket body reentry is: 30 Jul 2022 18:05 UTC ± 5 hours. Reentry will be along one of the ground tracks shown here. It is still too early to determine a meaningful debris footprint,” the Aerospace Corporation tweeted.
Despite the risk to the general population being low, it is still probable that some of the pieces of the rocket might come down over a populated area as it happened in May 2020, when another Chinese Long March 5B landed on the Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings in that West African nation.
The Aerospace Corporation has also predicted that about 5 to 9 metric tons of the object will reach the ground. The report added, The general rule of thumb is that 20-40% of the mass of a large object will reach the ground, but the exact number depends on the design of the object. In this case, we would expect about five to nine metric tons. Generally, for an upper stage, we see small and medium tanks survive more or less intact, and large engine components. The large tanks and the skin of this core stage are likely to come apart. We will also see lightweight items such as insulation fall out. The melting point of the materials used will make a difference in what remains.”