Remnants from a Chinese rocket sent into orbit rained down on a settlement near the launch site.
China successfully sent two BeiDou-3 navigation satellites into orbit Saturday, but the Long March 3B rocket that took off from the Xichang Satellite Launching Center in Sichuan Province broke up, and pieces of its boosters crashed back down to Earth near a populated area.
Images of burnt metal chunks and damaged buildings in a settlement downrange from the launch site were posted to the Chinese website Weibo and shared on Twitter by Andrew Jones, a correspondent with Space News. “This is the aftermath downrange following a Chinese Long March 3B launch from Xichang early Saturday. And that yellow smoke is very toxic hypergolic propellant,” he said.
This is the aftermath downrange following a Chinese Long March 3B launch from Xichang early Saturday. And that yellow smoke is very toxic hypergolic propellant. Source: https://t.co/VEh5X8Ors0 pic.twitter.com/22IVIpyJOk
— Andrew Jones (@AJ_FI) November 23, 2019
ℹ：https://t.co/vY0CEN4CFY pic.twitter.com/0XeXrQlMBi
— LaunchStuff (@LaunchStuff) November 23, 2019
“Not even the Russians are this irresponsible,” a space industry source told the Washington Examiner. Speaking of the fumes, the source added, “They can burn you inside and out.”
Beijing has sent dozens of satellites into orbit to make up its Beidou satellite navigation system, meant to counter U.S.-owned GPS, and hopes to complete it in 2020. But because some of China’s launch sites are built inland, as opposed to near the coast, its rockets sometimes scatter debris over or close to populated areas.
“In particular, launches from Xichang, situated in Sichuan province in the southwest, seem to threaten populated areas downrange,” Jones told Space.com. “The launch profile of Long March 3B rockets, especially those with a payload of a pair of Beidou navigation satellites, has resulted in near misses and impacts on settlements.”
Space programs have emerged once again as an important arena for strategic competition between the United States, Russia, and China after decades of cooperation between the United States and Russia following the Cold War.
“Space shows a hopeful future; it shows us what’s possible and what we could do together, but space is not the driver,” Scott Pace, the executive secretary of the U.S. National Space Council, told the Washington Examiner last year. “Space cooperation follows from politics.”
The NATO alliance is increasingly worried about China as it seeks to establish economic and military influence far beyond its borders. Around 2,000 satellites orbit the Earth, and roughly half of them are owned by NATO countries.
Last week NATO declared space to be “operational domain,” raising its importance up to the level of air, land, sea, and cyberspace. Citing concerns about satellites being jammed, hacked, or weaponized, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance “has no intention” of putting weapons in space, but also stressed that space is “essential to the Alliance’s deterrence and defense.”
