Debris from China rocket fall into Sulu Sea; no damage
DEBRIS from a rocket that boosted part of China’s new space station into orbit fell into the Sulu Sea near Palawan, the Philippine Space Agency (Philsa) has confirmed.
In a post in its official Facebook and Twitter accounts, the Philippine Space Agency said the debris from China’s Long March-5b rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday around 12:55am, and landed over Sulu Sea east of Palawan island (9.1° North Latitude, 119.0° East Longitude).
“It is expected that most of the rocket components have disintegrated during re-entry into the atmosphere. Philsa advises the public to immediately inform local authorities if suspected floating debris is sighted at sea, and to avoid retrieving or coming into contact with these materials,” the PSA said.
Moments before the debris fell on Philippine waters, the Malaysian Space Agency was able to detect the debris in Malaysian airspace.
The Philippine government has not been notified by the Chinese government of the possible falling debris from the space rocket. But the Philsa claimed it “proactively disseminated to relevant government agencies an advisory” about the launch of Long March 5B and the estimated drop zone locations of the rocket debris.”
Chinese Foreign Ministr y spokesman Zhao Lijian said “the probability of (the re-entry of the Chinese rockets entering the Earth’s space) causing harm to aviation activities or to the ground is extremely low.”
“According to information at hand, this rocket is designed with special technology, and the overwhelming majority of its components will burn up during the reentry into the atmosphere,” Lijian said in a briefing in Beijing few days before the debris fell.
US Defense Department officials and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration had chided Beijing for not sharing information on the potentially hazardous object’s descent.
A high-ranking source from the Department of Foreign Affairs said they are still studying whether or not to file a diplomatic protest with China over this incident.
Prof. Jay Batongbacal of the University of the Philippines College of Law explained that China could not be faulted for not informing the Philippines on the trajectory of the debris, as the “actual impact zone is very difficult to predict.”
If the debris, however, fell on land and caused damage or injury to the population, China “would be definitely responsible for compensation.”
“What they have been remiss in is by not following best practices of other spacefaring nations, which control the descent of their rocket boosters to ensure that they do not land in populated areas,” Batongbacal told Businessmirror.
Batongbacal said there is no international convention yet that regulates the operations of countries or companies conducting flight missions in outer space. “This is a matter of good operational practice by sovereign States or private launch companies. International space law has not yet developed to the point that it can regulate operational details,” he added.
So far, there are five international space law treaties and Batongbacal said they have recently studied and pitched to Congress that the Philippines accede to two of these treaties, i.e. Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space and the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects
“We pointed out that the Philippines actually faces higher risks of being hit by rocket debris from Chinese space launches, specially at the initial boost stage at the start of a launch. This incident involves reentry stage (I.e. after the launch was completed) but that sort of proves that we face additional risk,” he said.