China rocket could hit Earth today

OUT-OF-CONTROL debris from a Chinese rocket is expected to plummet back to Earth today or tomorrow.

US Space Command is monitoring progress of the spacecraft’s remains. But the location of the rocket’s descent into the atmosphere ‘cannot be pinpointed until within hours of its re-entry’, it said.

China said most debris will probably burn up as it re-enters and is unlikely to cause harm.

The Long March 5B rocket blasted off from Hainan Island on April 29, carrying what will become living quarters on a permanent Chinese space station.

Harvard-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell said potentially dangerous debris could escape incineration but would probably fall into the sea.

Based on its current orbit, he said the debris trail is likely to fall somewhere in a wide band as far north as New York, Madrid or Beijing and as far south as southern Chile and Wellington, New Zealand.