Is India Safe? Chinese Rocket Debris Likely To Hit Earth’s Surface On Sunday Morning

Picture courtesy Reuters

The US military predicted on Saturday that the debris of a Chinese rocket will most likely fall in Turkmenistan at around 4.30 am IST on Sunday, reported CNN.

Some experts had earlier said that the disintegrated rocket, which is in free fall, will crash in India. But now that the rocket being close to earth’s surface, it’s almost certain that the debris will not hit Indian soil.

China launched the crocket, with the first module of its new space station, into Earth’s orbit on April 29.

According to experts, multi-stage rockets fall back before getting into the earth’s orbit. But the Long March-5B rocket went into orbit, before coming back to the atmosphere.

Even as the areas likely to be affected by the impact of the rocket’s 18-tonne main segment have been praying that no serious damage is caused, China has downplayed the dangers. It has assured that the 18-tonne segment will burn up in the earth’s atmosphere.

Space experts, though, aren’t convinced. Some of them believe that large parts of the rocket’s main segment will reach the earth’s surface. And if it hits the surface of earth, it will cause considerable damage.

Paris-PSL Observatory astronomer Florent Delefie was quoted by news agency AFP as saying that several big pieces of the rocket are likely to reach the earth’s surface. However, he felt that the debris will most probably hit the ocean.