China says on Sunday that debris of its Long March 5B has landed in Indian Ocean and most of it burned up in the atmosphere.
This put an end to days of speculation over where the debris would hit.
The China Manned Space Engineering Office said in a statement that remnants of the country’s largest rocket launched last month plunged back through the atmosphere on Sunday.
It said the debris landed west of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean.
“After monitoring and analysis, at 10:24 [02:24 GMT] on May 9, 2021, the last-stage wreckage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 launch vehicle has reentered the atmosphere,” the statement said.
China says ‘extremely low’ risk of damage from rocket debris, adding that most of the components burned up in the re-entry.
US Space command confirmed the re-entry of the rocket over the Arabian Peninsula, but said it was unknown if the debris impacted land or water.
“The exact location of the impact and the span of debris – both of which are unknown at this time – will not be released by US Space Command,” it said on its website.
“We believe the rocket went down in the Indian Ocean, but are waiting on official data from @18SPCS,” it added in a separate tweet, referring to a squadron of the US Space Force.
