BEIJING (AP) — China’s unmanned spacecraft, which served the country’s permanent orbital space station, is in individual concern over China’s decision to drop a large booster rocket uncontrolled onto Earth. So, the re-entry into the atmosphere burned most of it.
According to the Chinese Manned Space Agency, only a small portion of Tianzhou 3 survived and fell safely to a given area in the South Pacific on Wednesday.
Until July 17, the spacecraft was docked in the Tenwa core section of the station. Addition of laboratory module On Monday when China will move to complete the station in the coming months.
China’s space program is run by the PLA, the military arm of the ruling Communist Party, and has largely proceeded with the space station program without the support of other countries. The United States has excluded China from the International Space Station because of its military ties.
The booster that attracted attention from the space community was part of China’s most powerful 23-ton Long March 5B-Y3 rocket, carrying the Wentian module to a station currently on board three astronauts.
China has decided not to return the booster to the atmosphere, and it is not clear exactly when and where it will land on Earth. Most will burn out upon return, but there is still a small risk of debris causing damage or casualties.
China is not the only such practice, but the size of the Long March rocket stage has been particularly scrutinized.
China has allowed the rocket stage to return to Earth on its own at least two times before, and after some of China’s rockets landed in the Indian Ocean, NASA said last year that it “meeted responsible standards for space debris. Not done. “
China also received intense criticism after using missiles in 2007 to destroy one of its dead weather satellites and create a huge debris field.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian rejected such concerns on Wednesday.
“Since the development phase of the space engineering program, China has taken into account debris reduction and the return of missions, including rocket carriers and satellites sent from orbit to orbit, to the atmosphere,” Zhao said in a daily briefing Wednesday. Stated.
“It is understood that this type of rocket employs a special technical design in which most of the components burn out and are destroyed during the re-entry process,” Zhao said. .. “