Long March 5B core stage falls to Earth
Around 10:15 pm (Eastern) the Long March 5B core stage reentered the atmosphere over the Arabian Peninsula, with pieces landing in the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives to the southwest of India.
China has attempted to minimize its behavior here, claiming that most of the rocket burned up and that the chance of any damage was low. Big deal! If you are a responsible spacefaring nation you don’t build rockets that are designed to do this.
Remember, at least three more Long March 5B launches are scheduled in the next the years. As presently designed all will dump that core stage somewhere on Earth in an entirely uncontrolled manner.
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Around 10:15 pm (Eastern) the Long March 5B core stage reentered the atmosphere over the Arabian Peninsula, with pieces landing in the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives to the southwest of India.
China has attempted to minimize its behavior here, claiming that most of the rocket burned up and that the chance of any damage was low. Big deal! If you are a responsible spacefaring nation you don’t build rockets that are designed to do this.
Remember, at least three more Long March 5B launches are scheduled in the next the years. As presently designed all will dump that core stage somewhere on Earth in an entirely uncontrolled manner.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
“… The issue here is not the danger, but China’s gross negligence and violation of its treaty obligations …”
(Treaty obligations ? TREATY OBLIGATIONS ? …….. WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN ……..”)
oh … sorry. Perhaps I am being to critical, but then I am (fully) aware, after having worked there as a field service rep for a U.S. / Japanese assembly equipment company, that the CCP considers our belief in their lies, ….
our Problem, not theirs.
They lie. We believe. Stupid us.
Larry the Cable Guy had a Tweet yesterday with the odds of where the rocket would come down.
Land – 5 %
Water – 11 %
Wile E Coyote – 84 %
The best photos of the LM (CZ)-5 first stage are at Spaceflight 101’s article “China’s new Heavy Lift Rocket rolls to Hainan Island Launch Pad for Shakedown Mission” and at the website “Tiananmen’s Tremendous Achievements” story:
“China’s Ambitious Space Program.”
You might want to see if Charles Vick or Mark Wade made any drawings of the first stage by itself—compared to some old Scuds (hypergolic V-2s essentially) for comparison…seeing as the LM-5 core also flew right over Riyadh as per Marco Langbroek at http://www.sattrackcam.blogspot.com
“If you are a responsible spacefaring nation…”
Well, seems like the problem is that everyone knows China is no such thing. We can wish and hope and lament and wring our hands, but the reality is, this is how China acts. Better to deal with the reality than with for another.
So where is our government in lodging a formal complaint about this with the UN or whatever international body administers the treaty? We MUST push for the rule of law, or you know the next step will certainly be to ignore treaty obligations colonizing the moon and elsewhere.
– MDN The Biden administration has been told to keep it‘s mouth shut by president Xi.
Has it been ascertained the distance from any sea vessel or human being the point of splashdown? What happens when people are injured and property is damaged? Does the CCP have any scruples or responsible stance on this? The CCP is not a friend to the world community.
A smart country learns from its own mistakes. A wise country learns from other countries’s mistakes. Since China has been dropping expended stages on its own citizens and other countries have had this same uncontrolled reentry problem but have learned to solve it, China is neither wise nor smart.