Free Republic

The U.S. Space Command is tracking uncontrolled debris from a Chinese rocket that sent part of a planned space station into orbit last week, the White House said on May 5. The debris comes from the Long March 5B rocket launched on April 29 to deliver a new 22.5-tonne module for China’s Tianhe space station. The debris has since reached orbital velocity, meaning it is circling the planet instead of falling back to Earth within a predetermined area as usually happens with the debris from U.S. launches.

On April 28th, China successfully put the core module of their Tianhe space station into orbit with the latest version of the Long March 5B heavy-lift booster. This rocket, designed for launching large objects into low Earth orbit, is unique in that the 33.16 m (108.8 ft) first stage carries the payload all the way to orbit rather than separating at a lower altitude. Unfortunately, despite an international effort to limit unnecessary space debris, the first stage of the Long March 5B booster is now tumbling through space and is expected to make an uncontrolled reentry sometime in the next...