Thailand’s Geo-informatics and Space Technology Development Agency (GISTDA) issued a warning today (Friday) concerning debris from a Chinese Long March 5B rocket, which will fall back to Earth this Sunday. Some of the rocket may fall on Thai territory, though the chance has been calculated at only about 1.2%.
The debris is from the over 20-ton core stage of a rocket launched on July 24th to take the second module for China’s unfinished Tiangong space station.
GISTDA said today that the debris has been in a decaying orbit around the Earth for a while and, as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, the fragments will be partially burned up, with smaller residue finally falling to Earth.
GISTDA said that their researchers have been using the space traffic management system called ZIRCON to analyse and forecast when and where debris will land.