That was close. The Chinese scientists once again show total disregard for safety of people.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/05/large-chunks-of-a-chinese-rocket-missed-new-york-city-by-about-15-minutes/?amp=1Large chunks of a Chinese rocket missed New York City by about 15 minutesThis is a rather large object to make an uncontrolled return to Earth. According to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and keen observer of satellites, this is the largest vehicle to make an uncontrolled reentry into Earth's atmosphere since 1991, when the Soviet Salyut 7 space station broke up over Argentina.
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"I would not be surprised if several bits with masses of the order of 100 to 300kg hit the surface," he told Ars.
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China has previously shown a disregard for debris from its rocket launches, however. It frequently launches rockets from pads surrounded by land. This has led to debris from first and second stages falling on villages in the country.
It is not clear whether future launches of the Long March 5B rocket will continue to send its core stage into an unstable orbit or if this was a one-off instance during the rocket's test flight. Certainly this will be discouraged, at the very least, by other nations.
