China's 22-ton Long March 5B rocket re-entered Earth's atmosphere after "delivering" its payload into orbit, and crashed in the Indian Ocean, near Sarawak, Borneo Island.
The entry of this rocket into Earth's atmosphere has been confirmed by the US Space Command, but at that time they could not confirm the exact location of the fall of the rocket debris, which cannot be controlled. China's Manned Space Agency said the debris from the rocket would fall in the same location, and it was likely that it had already burned down.
However, there is a Malaysian named Nazri Sulaiman, through the @nazriacai account, recording an object in the sky which is thought to be Long March 5B from Kuching, Sarawak Malaysia.
This video recording was then commented on by Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who said that the rocket debris could have fallen in Sibu, Bintulu, or Brunei, three cities located in northern Kalimantan, as quoted by The Verge, Sunday (31/7/2022).
Reentry looks to have been observed from Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia. Debris would land downrange in northern Borneo, possbily Brunei. [corrected] https://t.co/sX6m1XMYoO
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) July 30, 2022
As previously reported, the Long March 5G rocket returned to earth after being launched into orbit to deliver the second module of the Tiangong space station on July 24.
The rocket will likely stay in orbit for about a week, according to a report by the Center for Orbital Reentry and Debris Studies (CORDS) under the Aerospace Corporation.
They analyzed data collected by the Space Force's Space Surveillance Network system and predicted that the rocket would enter Earth's atmosphere on July 31, 2022, at around 12.30 WIB with a time difference of about 22 hours.
This is not the first time the Long March 5B rocket has entered orbit after being launched and crashed into Earth uncontrollably. Two years ago, fragments of a Long March 5B rocket fell off the west coast of Africa, in Ivory Coast.
In May 2021, the Long March 5B rocket again crashed out of control after launching the Tianhe module, which is the core module of the Tiangong space station. Fortunately, this rocket debris fell in the Indian Ocean so there were no casualties.