Chinese rocket re-enters Earth, burns up in skies over India | Watch
Source : India Today
A blazing streak of light was seen in the night sky over several parts of Maharashtra on Saturday. The streak, which appeared like a meteor shower, was actually the remnants of a Chinese rocket reentering Earth’s atmosphere, according to a US scientist.
Chinese Chang Zheng 5B rocket, which was launched in February 2021, reentered Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday and burned up in the skies over India. Most debris from the rocket will be burned up on re-entry and is highly unlikely to cause any harm.
“I believe this is the reentry of a Chinese rocket stage, the third stage of the Chang Zheng 3B serial number Y77 which was launched in Feb 2021 – it was expected to reenter in the next hour or so and the track is a good match,” McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts said in a tweet.
The Long March 5 family of rockets have been integral to China’s near-term space ambitions from the delivery of modules and crew of its planned space station to launches of exploratory probes to the moon and even Mars.
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| A part of Chinese rocket debris fell in some parts of Maharashtra (Left), remnants of Chinese rocket third stage re-entered Earth and burned up in skies over India. (Photo: Screengrab) |
A blazing streak of light was seen in the night sky over several parts of Maharashtra on Saturday. The streak, which appeared like a meteor shower, was actually the remnants of a Chinese rocket reentering Earth’s atmosphere, according to a US scientist.
Chinese Chang Zheng 5B rocket, which was launched in February 2021, reentered Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday and burned up in the skies over India. Most debris from the rocket will be burned up on re-entry and is highly unlikely to cause any harm.
US astronomer Jonathan McDowell said that the re-entry of the 3B rocket body was expected today.Just spotted this thing going over my head 10 min ago It was very close in altitude. Any expert who can guess about this? pic.twitter.com/fkg5kDZoCv
— Frustrated Pluto (@frustratedpluto) April 2, 2022
“I believe this is the reentry of a Chinese rocket stage, the third stage of the Chang Zheng 3B serial number Y77 which was launched in Feb 2021 – it was expected to reenter in the next hour or so and the track is a good match,” McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts said in a tweet.
The Long March 5 family of rockets have been integral to China’s near-term space ambitions from the delivery of modules and crew of its planned space station to launches of exploratory probes to the moon and even Mars.
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