The Defense Department said Wednesday it has no plans to shoot down and break up a 46,000-pound Chinese rocket hurtling toward Earth and expected to reenter the atmosphere on Saturday.
China launched the first module of its space station Thursday atop a 100-foot-long Long March 5B rocket, but unlike most rockets, the 5B will not follow a preplanned path safely into an ocean. Rather, it is still in space and falling closer to Earth. U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs is tracking the rocket’s path, but the Pentagon said today it is too early to tell where it might fall.
“There are too many factors to take into account this early, such as the atmospheric conditions and the exact angle of the object as it enters the atmosphere,” a Spacecom spokesperson said.
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Factors such as space weather and atmospheric conditions influence the single-stage rocket’s movements in space, which are being closely tracked along with thousands of other pieces of space debris by the 18th Space Control Squadron. Most smaller objects reentering the Earth’s atmosphere burn up or fall into the ocean, which covers 70% of the planet’s surface.
The Pentagon said Wednesday it does not intend to shoot down the rocket to break it up, responding simply in a written statement “No” to a question about the possibility of using a kinetic strike.
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“The object that is expected to reenter is the entire rocket body,” Spacecom said. “This particular rocket does not have multiple stages, as many other rockets have (i.e. a lower stage and an upper stage). That is the reason this is an unusually large size.”
Space Command began Tuesday to provide daily updates on the status of the loose Chinese rocket.
