The Secretary of Defence says the US currently has no plans to shoot down an “out-of-control” Chinese rocket that’s falling to Earth.
The body of the rocket “is almost intact coming down,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
Mr Kirby said it is “too soon” to know whether any action, such as destroying the space debris, can be taken if human-occupied regions are threatened.“It’s just a little too soon right now to know where it’s going to go or what, if anything, can be done about that.” The April 29 launch was the first of three elements of the planned Chinese space station, CSS, powered by the Long March 5B rocket.After its separation from the space station module, the rocket began to orbit Earth in an irregular trajectory as it slowly lost altitude.It could end up breaking apart upon entry, with only smaller pieces of debris making impact.
But neither of those outcomes is certain, and there is a chance the rocket could crash into an inhabited area, or hit a ship.The space laboratorydisintegrated upon re-entry into the atmosphere in 2018, two years after it had stopped working, though Chinese authorities denied they had lost control of it.
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