In early August, debris from the Long March 5B rocket fell uncontrollably to Earth, and one of the debris was found in Borneo. Now, a similar incident has the potential to occur again although the area of the fall has not yet been determined.
As quoted from Live Science, the China Manned Space Agency (CSMA) has just launched the last module for the Tiangong space station on October 31, using the Long March 5B rocket. As before, the rocket will fall uncontrollably to Earth in the next few days.
The risk of rockets endangering lives is indeed small, but cannot be underestimated. "7 billion people are at risk that Chinese rocket debris will fall on them," said Ted Muelhaupt, a consultant at The Aerospace Corporation.
Most rockets are designed to have debris fall into the sea or bare ground, some time after being flown, for example SpaceX rockets. However, for Long March 5B, China allowed the core stage to continue to reach orbit, until it fell on its own without being controlled.
But one need not worry too much. "Your chances of winning the lottery tonight are much better than the fall of this Long March 5B rocket. The risk for one individual is 6 in 10 trillion. Very small," said Ted.
Most of the rocket burns in the atmosphere, but about 20-40% of the debris will fall to Earth. In early August, debris from a Long March 5B rocket was found crashed in Sanggau Regency, West Kalimantan.
In order to prevent the danger of rockets falling out of control, there has been a growing demand for laws to be made so that such incidents do not happen again in the future.
"The reality is that there are no real money laws internationally that govern what you should do in the event of a rocket crash. So there's no legal way to control that," said Marlon Sorge, Executive Director for The Aerospace Corporation's Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris. Studies.