WASHINGTON — The huge, 30 meter-tall core of a Chinese rocket is tumbling wildly through low-Earth orbit and could crash anywhere on Earth in the coming days.<br /><br />The same type of Chinese rocket crashed into a village in West Africa a year ago. Here are the details.<br /><br />On Wednesday 28 April, China launched a massive Long March 5B rocket that carried the first module of its planned space station into orbit. <br /><br />The Guardian reports that the core stage of this rocket was supposed to fall back to Earth in a controlled descent, but something went wrong and the 30 meter-tall rocket stage started skipping on Earth's atmosphere — and no one knows where it will crash once the drag of Earth's atmosphere tugs it down to the planet's surface. <br /><br />Much of the core will likely burn up in the atmosphere, but there is a chance that some chunks of debris will survive the reentry and rain down on the land or ocean. <br /><br />This, sadly, wouldn't be the first time. In May 2020, a Long March 5B rocket slammed through the atmosphere, partially burning up during its descent. <br /><br />The core fell largely into the Atlantic Ocean, but some debris landed in West Africa.<br /><br />According to the South China Morning Post, some chunks of debris crashed into houses in villages in Côte d'Ivoire, though thankfully no casualties were reported.<br /><br />On Tuesday 4 May the latest out-of-control Chinese rocket was orbiting Earth around once every 90 minutes, at a speed of about 27,600 kilometers per hour, and an altitude of more than 300 kilometers. <br /><br />The US military has named it 2021-035B and its path can be seen on websites that track objects in Earth orbit.
