--- title: Chinese Space Rocket Debris Crashes Back to Earth Over Ocean description: Remnants from a massive Chinese rocket booster crashed back to Earth on Saturday over the Indian Ocean, space officials from the US and China confirmed. canonical: https://time.com/6202364/chinese-space-rocket-debris-crashes-back-earth-ocean/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-07-30T19:38:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:51:37.231Z article:section: Science og:title: Chinese Space Rocket Debris Crashes Back to Earth Over Ocean og:description: It remains unclear what path the debris from the booster might take, US Space Command said on Twitter on Saturday, referring questions to the Chinese government og:url: https://time.com/6202364/chinese-space-rocket-debris-crashes-back-earth-ocean/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte893d307c0d29195/698a344322fb856a43e2dbc0/rocket.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: CHINA-SPACE og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Chinese Space Rocket Debris Crashes Back to Earth Over Ocean twitter:description: It remains unclear what path the debris from the booster might take, US Space Command said on Twitter on Saturday, referring questions to the Chinese government twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte893d307c0d29195/698a344322fb856a43e2dbc0/rocket.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Chinese Space Rocket Debris Crashes Back to Earth Over Indian Ocean > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Victoria Cavaliere / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Victoria Cavaliere / Bloomberg Contributor Jul 30, 2022 7:38 PM UTC  Onlookers watch the launch of a rocket transporting Chinas second module for its Tiangong space station from the Wenchang spaceport in southern China on July 24, 2022\. l Onlookers watch the launch of a rocket transporting Chinas second module for its Tiangong space station from the Wenchang spaceport in southern China on July 24, 2022\. l CNS—AFP/ Getty Images by [Victoria Cavaliere / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Victoria Cavaliere / Bloomberg Contributor Jul 30, 2022 7:38 PM UTC Remnants from a massive Chinese rocket booster crashed back to Earth on Saturday over the Indian Ocean, space officials from the US and China confirmed. It remains unclear what path the debris from the booster might take, US Space Command [said](https://twitter.com/US%5FSpaceCom/status/1553436525404323842?s=20&t=kOlVMq76IsyBWe2olD6tcA) on Twitter on Saturday, referring questions to the Chinese government. China’s spaceflight agency [said](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LCpd8A9dBmjyVvglGaTQPg) wreckage of the 23-metric-ton (25.4 tons) Long March 5B hit Earth over the sea in the southwestern Philippines with the “vast majority” of the debris burning up upon reentry, according to a brief statement that was criticized by a US official. “The People’s Republic of China (PRC) did not share specific trajectory information as their Long March 5B rocket fell back to Earth,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “All spacefaring nations should follow established best practices and do their part to share this type of information in advance to allow reliable predictions of potential debris impact risk, especially for heavy-lift vehicles, like the Long March 5B, which carry a significant risk of loss of life and property,” Nelson said. Experts had deemed the possibility of injury or infrastructure damage to be low. The rocket body had been in an elliptical orbit around Earth and was “dragged toward an uncontrolled reentry,” to Earth’s atmosphere, [according](https://aerospace.org/) to the Aerospace Corp., a nonprofit corporation based in El Segundo, California, that provides technical advice for space missions and receives US funding. --- ### More from TIME --- Before re-entry, experts predicted that while much of the massive booster would burn up upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere, huge chunks — as much as 40% — would survive and fall to oceans or the ground. Some projections had shown a ground track that crossed parts of Mexico and Brazil, then skirted the Cape of Africa before passing over land in Southeast Asia. This is the third uncontrolled entry by a Chinese rocket booster in as many years. In May 2021, pieces of another Long March rocket landed in the Indian Ocean, prompting concern that the Chinese space agency had lost control of it. Experts have stressed that uncontrolled re-entries are avoidable. SpaceX rocket boosters, for example, make vertical landings and are then captured, [refurbished](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-29/spacex-launch-signals-quicker-pace-of-booster-refurbishment) and reused in subsequent launches. China has dismissed Western concerns over the debris, calling it a smear effort as the US-China space race escalates. “The US and Western media deliberately exaggerate and exaggerate the ‘loss-of-control’ of the Chinese rocket debris and the probability of personal injury caused by the rocket debris, obviously with bad intentions,” Shanghai-based news site Guancha.cn said Tuesday. The Long March 5B rocket took off July 24 carrying one of the heaviest payloads in recent years, a module for [China’s under-construction](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-30/china-prepares-final-missions-to-complete-its-own-space-station) Tiangong space station. 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