The installation of the lab advances the progress of a second outpost in orbit where humanity is able to conduct scientific research in a microgravity environment.Ĭhina plans to operate the new Tiangong station for at least a decade, inviting other nations to take part. (Disposing of used, unwanted rocket pieces in the ocean is a common practice.) But the core booster stage - a 10-story cylinder weighing 23 tons empty - carried the Wentian module into orbit. Four side boosters dropped off shortly after the launch, crashing harmlessly in the Pacific Ocean.
The Long March 5B contained multiple pieces. This launch added Wentian, the laboratory module. The second flight carried Tianhe, the main module of Tiangong, the new space station, last year and splashed down in the Indian Ocean.
The country’s space program needed such a large, powerful vehicle to carry parts to orbit for the assembly of its space station. This was the third flight of Long March 5B, China’s largest rocket. People in Sarawak, a province of Malaysia on the island of Borneo, reported sightings of the rocket debris on social media, with many believing the pyrotechnics at first to be a meteor shower or a comet. Within the last day, the prediction became more precise, but even then forecasters were unsure whether it would come down over the Indian Ocean, off Mexico or in the Atlantic. In recent days, space watchers had projected potential re-entries over much of the planet. But the 23-ton core stage of the Long March 5B accompanied the space station segment all the way to orbit.īecause of friction caused by the rocket rubbing against air at the top of the atmosphere, it soon began losing altitude, making what is called “uncontrolled re-entry” back to Earth. Usually, the large booster stages of rockets immediately drop back to Earth after they are jettisoned. Nelson referred to in his statement launched last Sunday, carrying to orbit a laboratory module that was added to China’s space station, Tiangong.
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