An out-of-control 100-foot-tall, 22-metric-tonne Chinese rocket has finally fallen to Earth over the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.
Chinese Long March 5B rocket re-entered over the Arabian Peninsula at approximately 10:15 p.m. EDT, according to US Space Command that was tracking the rocket.
China’s Long March 5B rocket was originally launched in late April to carry the first part of China’s Tianhe module, which will serve as the core of its planned crewed space station. But the rocket booster itself went into orbit, and began an uncontrolled re-entry that led to fears it could come down above a populated area.
It was, however, still unknown if the debris impacted land or water.
The agency’s official Twitter account tweeted: “Everyone else following the #LongMarch5B re-entry can relax. The rocket is down.”
