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THE THREAT OF THE CHINESE ROCKET-LONG MARCH-5B - AT LAST ENDED

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 5/10/2021 11:26:38 AM

T K NANDANAN China has just added more woes to the already suffering mankind with a large segment of its rocket launched on April 29 failed to hit the target and made an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere frightening the entire human race, but at last it landed in the Indian Ocean ending the fears that it would land anywhere on the earth causing untold damagestomankind. The point of impact was in the Indian ocean somewhere southwest of India and Sri Lanka. Most of the debris was burnt up in the atmosphere.The Long March-5B, also known as Chang Zheng, is a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology. The 98-foot-long, 20-ton section rocket launched on April 29 carried part of the country’s new space station, and was the first of the expected 11 missions necessary to complete the project. It is very common for parts of rockets to fall back to Earth, but this piece caused concern because its lack of control meant that experts weren’t sure where on the planet it would strike. Meanwhile, panic-stricken people at different parts of the world were very concerned about its landing. NASA administrator released a statement saying, “China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris.” People in New York, Los Angeles, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Abuja and Beijingwere a bit scary and nervous as there was a tiny chance the debris could have hit any of these places. But they were fortunate enough to be safe as the debris landed in the Indian Ocean. At this juncture, it may be recalled that in 1979 NASA’s defunct Skylab Space Station posed a great threat to the mankind and came crashing back to Earth dropping big hunks of hardware into the Indian Ocean and across western Australia. The reason for the Skylab Space station crash was that it could not be re-boosted by the Space Shuttle, which was not ready until 1981. Thus, the Skylab’s orbit decayed and disintegrated in the atmosphere on July 11, 1979 scattering debris across the Indian ocean and Western Australia. It may also be recalled that a year ago another Chinese rocket piece passed over New York and Los Angeles before crashing into Ivory Coast in West Africa where it damaged buildings but caused no injuries. In the light of those countries that engage in space technologies and launchrockets for various purposes causing damage by crashing back to the earth or collide and create a cloud of space debris that could imperil other satellites or astronauts, these countries must take all kinds of precautions so that dangerous situation like this must not occur again. If the rocket launching fails, there should be an inherent controlling system to guide the crashed rocket right into the ocean so that no human casualties may occur.