Debris from a new Chinese rocket nearly hit New York City Monday night.
According to a report, China test-launched a new single-stage Long March 5B rocket last Tuesday. The 20-ton core eventually fell back into the atmosphere, which fragments surviving re-entry. Astronomer Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said the debris could weigh up to several hundred pounds.
The remains of the core passed over New York City and, had re-entry been just a few minutes earlier, the “Big Apple” could have been showered with debris. McDowell said some objects that fell on Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa are likely parts of the Chinese rocket stage.
Greg Autry, a former member of the Trump administration’s NASA Landing Team, recently wrote an op-ed in Space News magazine criticizing China’s space launch safety practices.
