(ETH) – A massive Chinese rocket will come crashing back to Earth this weekend, and despite the space object being only hours away from reentry, nobody really knows the exact time and where the fiery projectile will return to the planet. The 10-story, 23-ton piece of booster rocket will plummet back to Earth a week after it was launched by the Chinese government.
The rocket is part of the Long March 5B spacecraft, comprised of one core stage and four boosters, which launched from China’s Hainan island on April 29. The unmanned craft ferried the core stage of the T-shaped space station Tianhe or “Harmony of the Heavens,” which is expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
The Chinese rocket will smash back to Earth in an “uncontrolled reentry.” On Friday, China’s foreign ministry said most of the debris from the rocket will burn up during re-entry and is highly unlikely to cause any harm. The Pentagon said the descent of the Chinese rocket was being tracked by U.S. Space Command.
“The U.S. Space Command on Saturday estimated re-entry would occur at 0204 GMT on Sunday, plus or minus one hour, while the Center for Orbital Reentry and Debris Studies (CORDS) at Aerospace Corporation, a U.S. federally funded space-focused research and development center, updated its prediction to four hours either side of 0330 GMT on Sunday,” Reuters reported.
EU Space Surveillance and Tracking said the chances of the rocket hitting populated areas is “low,” but cautioned that uncontrolled reentries come with “uncertainties.” READ MORE
