At the end of January, astronomer Bill Gray, creator of software to calculate the trajectories of asteroids and other objects, announced that the space debris due to crash on March 4 was the second stage of a rocket of the American company SpaceX.
Bill Gray returned to this announcement last week, acknowledging an error, and now claiming that it is part of a Chinese rocket launched in 2014.
When questioned, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied, assuring that the incriminated rocket "had re-entered the Earth's atmosphere without danger and had completely burned".
Beijing "conscientiously attaches to the long-term viability of its space activities", assured the press the spokesman of Chinese diplomacy, Wang Wenbin.
According to Bill Gray, whose software is used by NASA-funded observation programs, the object in question belongs to a Long March rocket launched during the Chang'e 5 spacecraft's launch into space. -T1, as part of the Chinese space agency's lunar exploration program.
China landed a spacecraft on the far side of the Moon in early 2019 – a world first.
The Asian giant has lost control of spacecraft in the past, including in May 2021 when "most" of the first stage of a Long March-5B rocket disintegrated over the Indian Ocean.
In 2020, debris from another Long March crashed into villages in Côte d'Ivoire, causing damage but no injuries.
© 2022 AFP