The debris from a large Chinese rocket – the Long March 5B — crashed to earth over the Pacific and the Indian oceans. The Chinese 23-ton Long March 5B rocket, launched on July 24, delivered a new module to its space station.
Key highlights
- The Chinese space agency said that the most of the remnants burned up during the reentry process over the Sulu Sea, which is between the island of Borneo and the Philippines.
- The module successfully docked with China’s orbital outpost. The rocket had since been in an uncontrolled descent toward Earth’s atmosphere – marking the third time that China has been accused of not properly handling space debris from its rocket stage.
- The country’s first space station, Tiangong-1, crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2016 after Beijing confirmed it lost control.
- An 18-tonne rocket fell uncontrolled in May 2020.
- China also faced criticism after using a missile to destroy one of its defunct weather satellites in 2007, creating a field of debris that other governments said might jeopardise other satellites.
About Space Liability Convention of 1972
- The Space Liability Convention of 1972 defines responsibility in case a space object causes harm.
- The treaty says that a launching State shall be absolutely liable to pay compensation for damage caused by its space objects on the surface of the earth or to aircraft, and liable for damage due to its faults in space.
- The Convention also provides for procedures for the settlement of claims for damages. However, there is no law against space junk crashing back to earth.
- In April 2022, suspected debris from a Chinese rocket was found in two Maharashtra villages.
- In 1979, re-entry of NASA’s 76-ton Skylab had scattered debris over uninhabited parts of Australia, and the space agency was fined $400 for littering by a local government.
- The only settlement using the Liability Convention was between the erstwhile Soviet Union and Canada over debris of Soviet Cosmos 954 falling in a barren region.
