[Global Times Comprehensive Report] "Facts, as the Chinese side said before, (rocket wreckage) is unlikely to cause damage. China has defended its'international practice' approach." German TV One commented on the 9th.
In the past few days, some Western media and people have made many accusations of "out of control", "irresponsible", and "not up to standard" about the crash of China's Long March 5B rocket. The noise can be described as overwhelming, but with the Chinese space agency on the 9th Informing the time and location of the rocket wreck's re-entry into the atmosphere, the related hype stopped abruptly, or in other words, disappeared.
The facts are very clear. It is completely normal for the rocket wreck to fall to the earth. The same is true for the self-proclaimed technologically advanced United States. Moreover, China and the United States are basically at the same level in this field.
The purpose behind these hype sounds is worth pondering.
Some analysts say that they deliberately discredit China's development in the aerospace field and exaggerate China's technological progress as a "threat" to the earth.
Some media believe that this is a "classic" case of topics created by American public opinion. There is no such thing as a "trivial matter" between China and the United States, and some people forcefully add drama.
But in any case, this incident exposed the "dual standards" of the Western media-many people remember that a rocket wreck launched by a US aerospace company crashed into a farm more than a month ago, and the media romanticized it as "lighting up". The blockbuster movie scene of "Night Sky".
Wreckage falls, "guessing" is over
"Worries are obviously unfounded," German TV One said on the 9th that US experts had previously warned that debris could enter the atmosphere "uncontrolled" and that human settlements would suffer debris rain, triggering global panic.
But the fact is that China has defended its "international practice" approach.
According to a report from the China Manned Space Engineering Office on the 9th, after monitoring and analysis, at 10:24 in the morning that day, the wreckage of the last stage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 carrier rocket had reentered the atmosphere, and the landing area was located in the sea area around 72.47°E and 2.65°N. , The vast majority of devices are ablated and destroyed during re-entry into the atmosphere.
According to the "Voice of America", according to Chinese media reports, the wreckage of China's largest rocket crashed into the Indian Ocean on the 9th. The impact point was on the ocean west of the Maldives Islands.
Taiwan’s “Central News Agency” stated that, in contrast to the location provided by the mainland, the wreckage fell on the southwestern sea of Dalu Atoll in the southwest of the Maldives.
After the Chinese report, according to Reuters, "people's speculation about where the debris fell for the past few days is over."
"All those who track the Long March 5B rocket's return to the atmosphere can relax. The rocket has fallen." The US space tracking website wrote on Twitter.
But Bill Nelson, the new director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), claimed that China had failed to meet the "responsible standards" for space debris.
The US Space Command said in a statement that the exact location, impact and extent of the debris fall are still unknown.
“The fall of the Chinese rocket wreckage this time is generally within the normal range. Most of it was burned when it fell. Only a few pieces may not be fully burned due to differences in the atmospheric environment.” Wang Yanan, editor-in-chief of Aviation Knowledge, told the Global Times "The reporter said that due to strong winds and other factors during the splash and fall process, there are differences between theoretical calculations and actual splash and fall trajectories, which are the same for all countries, and this problem does not exist because the spacecraft is the United States.
In other words, with the exception of the current SpaceX re-used rockets, all traditional space launch vehicles abandoned the first and second stages of the wreckage after completing their launch missions. No country has allowed them to return in an active and controllable manner. They are all splashed and dropped uncontrollably in a pre-planned manner.
Shameful "double standards"
Although the rocket remains uncontrollable when it re-enters the atmosphere, before launch, scientists will calculate the orbit of the fall to minimize possible threats.
However, in the past few days, "out of control", "may fall in New York or a larger city", "technological backward"... Western public opinion has been full of criticisms and accusations against China's Long March 5B rocket.
As the wreckage of the rocket fell, this round of "lively discussions" suddenly subsided, but the aftermath was still there.
The US Fox News reported on the 9th that in the past week, all parts of the world have been tracking this "out of control" rocket.
The 18th Space Control Squadron of the US Space Force previously listed nearly ten specific countries, including Costa Rica, Haiti, and Australia, calling them a possible crash.
On Twitter, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University in the United States, wrote, “It seems that China has won the bet, but its approach is still reckless.”
Aerodynamicist and aerospace technology expert Huang Zhicheng told the Global Times reporter that in order to meet the requirements of launching the core module of the space station, the Long March 5B rocket compared with the Long March 5 rocket uses the first stage rocket as the last stage. Add attitude adjustment and speed correction to directly send the payload into orbit.
Therefore, there is a problem that the final stage wreck reenters the atmosphere and burns down.
In fact, this is a normal practice for space rocket launches.
Wang Yanan said that regardless of the difference between the actual operation of the rocket and the expected one, its projected trajectory on the surface of the earth must be accurate, otherwise it will not be possible to complete the mission.
The core module of China's "Tianhe" space station has arrived smoothly, and the solar panels have been deployed smoothly, so it is impossible for the rocket to lose control or not have enough control.
"I do sometimes doubt the common sense of science and technology in Western society, and there are people who believe in such evaluation logic."
The German technology news website Golem said that the NASA director criticized China, but China’s handling of it is international practice.
The European Space Agency handles rockets in this way. After pushing the satellites, the Ariane 5-ECA launch vehicle also enters the Earth’s atmosphere in an "uncontrolled" manner.
The Russian "Pravda" quoted a Russian expert as saying that there have been cases of rocket fragments falling in northern Russia and Kazakhstan before, and it can be said that rockets of all levels have fallen on the earth.
The US "National Geographic" website listed several examples of space debris falling in areas of human activity on the 8th: In 1979, the US "Sky Lab" wreck was out of control and the debris fell in Western Australia; more than a month ago, the US SpaceX "Falcon" The 9" rocket wreckage landed on a farm in Washington State.
According to the Russian newspaper, the first stage of the "Falcon 9" rocket is designed for repeated launches. The second stage falls into the atmosphere and burns after completing the mission. The second stage rocket is also "uncontrollable".
"China's space debris? Threat, be careful, it will hit you! American space debris? It is a brilliant light show like a movie scene!" "Russia Today" on the 8th satirized the Western media with the title "Double Standard" ".
On Twitter, netizens compiled a left-right comparison table. On the left, the US "New York Post", CNN, CBS, British "Independent" and other hype about how the Chinese rocket wreck "out of control", the right is these media Previously boasted that the "Falcon 9" rocket wreckage brought "mysterious light" and "lighted up the night sky."
Many aerospace experts told the Global Times reporter that some people in the West accused China of "old" rocket technology as an out-and-out "double standard." Either the Western media interviewed laymen "experts", or they did it deliberately.
Because China and the United States are at the same level in rocket technology, the main gap is the carrying capacity.
"The Chinese are good!"
Huang Zhicheng told the Global Times that compared with before, the US and Western countries are particularly concerned about the whereabouts of the Chinese rocket wreckage this time. On the one hand, because the current Sino-US relations are relatively tense, the US will not let go of any opportunity to hype the “China threat theory”; On the other hand, the West’s predictive analysis of the final stage wreckage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 carrier rocket is actually a kind of anti-missile training.
"Although the final stage of this rocket is not a real missile, the prediction of its flight trajectory and re-entry performance parameters can be used as an exercise for predicting the parameters of the real missile warhead re-entry. This kind of re-entry to the atmosphere The prediction of the parameters has a good reference value for accurate anti-missile missiles in the future."
In the view of "Russia Today", the American media's perception of the risk of China's "space junk" this time has aroused a kind of hysteria.
This is his usual trick, which embodies the ability to create "topics" and dominate "discourse."
American politicians, think tanks, and the media are openly seeking to influence the dialogue against China by organizing "topics."
The article said that SpaceX’s debris will always fall on the earth and people’s property, but we will not portray its interstellar spacecraft as threatening or evil.
So the answer is that to slander all things related to China, the United States has geopolitical interests, and it has a very mature script.
Not long ago, the "Strategic Competition Act" of the United States promised to provide 300 million US dollars a year, focusing on "negative news" related to the "Belt and Road" project.
The Hong Kong 01 website analyzed that there are no “trivial matters” between China and the United States. In this atmosphere, media focusing on China and the United States are likely to forcefully “add drama”, and the US government’s statement has provided media with consumer space.
The article mentioned the performance of US Secretary of Defense Austin at the press conference on the 6th-while saying that he "will not shoot down the Chinese rocket wreckage", while at the same time blaming China's negligence for the wreckage out of orbit.
Words such as "shoot down" and "claim" make people feel provocative.
He Hui, a strategic communication expert at Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times that in the face of the development of China's national power, especially the development of China's aerospace industry, Western media are more sensitive. Once relevant topics appear, they will inevitably become the focus.
The rise of China, especially the progress of spaceflight, will become a mixed object of investigation that integrates Chinese politics, making it more than just a technical issue.
According to a report by the Russian "Life" website on the 9th, Russian astrophysicist Vladimir Sulkin said that after entering the space age, various rocket wreckages and space devices have fallen to the earth regularly, dozens of times a year.
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean about 4 kilometers deep, there is a "spacecraft cemetery" called "Nemo Point".
Sulkin said that China is about to build its own space station, which shows that China has mastered the most advanced space technology today. "The Chinese are good, and they will have equal rights in space."
[Global Times Special Correspondent in the United States, Germany, Egypt Lin Ri Qingmu Huang Peizhao Global Times reporter Guo Yuandan Zhang Wang Hu Xinyu Ren Zhong Liu Yupeng]