Beijing: A report suggests that 25 tons of space junk from a recently launched Chinese rocket is likely to hit Earth on July 31.
According to experts at the US-based Aerospace Corporation's Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS), the 53.6-meter-tall space debris was the result of the July 24 Long March 5B launches to supply the Wentian experiment module to China's Tiangong Space Station, IANS reported.
By July 31st, space junk is expected to re-enter uncontrollably. Also, potential fields of entry include India, the US, Africa, Australia, Brazil and Southeast Asia, Aerospace's latest forecasts revealed.
During the launch, the first stage of the Long March 5B also reached orbital velocity instead of falling downrange as is common practice. That placed the empty rocket body in an elliptical orbit around Earth where it is being dragged toward an uncontrolled reentry in the coming days, as per the CORDS experts tracking the uncontrolled reentry of the space junk.
Similar uncontrolled reentries of long march rockets occurred in 2020 and 2021. A re-entry of this size will not burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, and the general rule of thumb is that 20-40 per cent of the mass of a large object will reach Earth, depending on the design of the object, the report said.