Chinese rocket debris falls into Indian Ocean

The remains of a Chinese rocket crashed into the Indian Ocean on Sunday with much of the debris burning up during the re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere, China’s space agency said.

The coordinates, cited by the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA) and shared by official news agency, Xinhua, pointed to the location of the impact near the Maldives islands.

“The debris of the last stage of the Long March-5B Y2 carrier rocket re-entered the atmosphere at 10.24 a.m. on Sunday (Beijing Time),” Xinhua reported, adding: “The vast majority of the device burned up during the re-entry, and the rest of the debris fell into a sea area with the centre at 2.65 degrees north latitude and 72.47 degrees east longitude.”

The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, carrying the Tianhe module, the first and core module for the construction of China’s space station, launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on the coast of the southern island province of Hainan on April 29.