A social media user recorded a Chinese rocket disintegrating above Malaysia's Kuching city. The Long March-5B Y3 rocket was launched on July 24 but returned to Earth on Saturday, landing in the Indian Ocean.
A social media user recorded a Chinese rocket disintegrating above Malaysia's Kuching city. The Long March-5B Y3 rocket was launched on July 24 but returned to Earth on Saturday, landing in the Indian Ocean.
The video, labelled "Meteor sighted in Kuching!" shows the rocket flying across the sky before burning up in the atmosphere.
The US Space Command confirmed the rocket's breakup and stated the Long March 5B rocket re-entered the Indian Ocean around 12:45 p.m. EDT on Saturday.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) previously stated that Beijing had not supplied the "precise trajectory information" required to determine where potential debris may land.
Analysts predicted earlier this week that the rocket body would disintegrate as it dropped through the atmosphere, but it is massive enough that multiple fragments will likely survive a violent re-entry to rain debris across a 2,000 km (1,240 mile) long by 70 km (44 mile) broad region.
The Long March 5B rocket launched on July 24 to carry a laboratory module to the new Chinese space station in orbit, the third mission of China's most powerful rocket since its debut in 2020.
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