After launching and successfully docking with the Tiangong space station, the Wentian space station's missing module rocket stage is wildly falling to the Earth.
A Chinese Rocket Will Irrepressibly Land to Earth
A Chinese rocket is descending uncontrollably to Earth, and experts have no idea where it will crash.
The Wentian space station module, launched on Sunday and successfully docked with the Tiangong space station, was still missing its 21-ton rocket stage.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has been monitoring the rocket. Additionally, he said that "on average," Chinese launchers do "a poorer job of upper stage disposal" than American ones do.
The 18th Space Defense Squadron, Space Command, or the US military have not yet sent out tweets regarding the incident.
The water covers most of the Earth's surface. Thus, there is very little chance that rocket debris will come down on people or property. However, according to analysts, there is a 10% possibility that one or more casualties may occur in the next ten years.
China has now launched a rocket that has made an uncontrolled landing on Earth three times. It was difficult to predict where a rocket carrying the center portion of the Tianhe space station module would land when it launched in May last year. Every 90 minutes, the debris makes an orbit around the planet.
A minor aircraft crash dispersed across a hundred miles would have occurred if the rocket had re-entered the atmosphere over a city.
A comparable prototype ship had passed New York City in the previous year within 13 minutes of impact.
China Sees to Develop a Two-Staged Reusable Long March 9
In response to SpaceX's Starship, a media source claims that China is contemplating creating a totally mega-rocket derivative.
Methane-liquid oxygen, also known as methalox, is the same fuel that SpaceX's Starship, which is used for long space missions and NASA's human lunar landings, would utilize. Although the two systems have similar heavy-lifting capacities and fuel kinds, their structural differences go well beyond that. For instance, during landing, the Starship may do in-air flips.
Long Lehao, the head designer of the Long March rocket series, unveiled the new Long March 9 design at a public lecture in Chinese. The model might take flight as early as 2035.
According to SpaceNews, the two-stage reusable Long March 9 model would have 26 methalox engines in the first stage and be capable of launching 150 tons into low Earth orbit, 65 tons into geosynchronous transfer orbit, or 50 tons via trans-lunar injection to the moon.
More than 400 missions have been launched by China so far, the majority of which were propelled by the Long March rocket family.
SpaceNews also said that the methane engine design suggested for Long March 9 is practical since the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation has been developing methane engines for some time.
The action would also align China with American firms like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance. All of them are seeking the methalox mixture for improved performance and less soot-related environmental problems.
