NEW YORK >> Debris from a large Chinese rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean at 9:45 a.m. Pacific time Saturday, according to the U.S. Space Command.
In an update posted on social networking site Weibo, the Chinese Manned Space Agency said most of the debris had burned up on reentry over the Sulu Sea, a body of water between the island of Borneo and the Philippines.
The possibility, however slight, that debris from the rocket could strike a populated area had led people around the world to track its trajectory for days.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson issued a rebuke Saturday, saying that China “did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth.” He added that all countries should “share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B.”
— The New York Times