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Updates: 25 June, 2024 08:51 First
Hong Kong, June 25 (ANI): Suspected debris from a Chinese rocket was seen falling over a village in southwest China on Saturday, as captured in dramatic video circulating on Chinese social media and shared with CNN by a local witness.
The incident occurred shortly after the Long March 2C carrier rocket took off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province at 3 p.m. local time (3 a.m. Eastern time) on Saturday. The launch was intended to put into orbit the Space Variable Objects Monitor, a collaborative satellite project between China and France designed to study gamma-ray bursts.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has made it a priority to elevate China's status as a leading space power, and has increased the frequency of missions to boost China's competitiveness against major global players like the United States, as CNN reported.
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the state-owned contractor company responsible for the development of the Long March 2C rocket, declared Saturday's launch “a total success.”
CNN has contacted both CASC and the State Council Information Office, which handles press inquiries for the Chinese government and its space agency, for comment on the incident.
Video posted on Chinese short-video platform Kuaishou showed a cylindrical piece of debris falling over a rural village, landing near a hill, with yellow smoke pouring out from one end.
CNN's analysis geolocated the footage to Jianqiao village in Guizhou province, which borders Sichuan to the southeast, where the launch site is located. The video came from an IP address in Guizhou and showed multiple angles of the debris falling, with villagers, including children, running at the sight of the orange trail in the sky, while some covered their ears in anticipation of a crash.
By Monday afternoon, many of the videos had been removed from Chinese social media platforms.
Eyewitness accounts shared on social media said the collision was followed by a loud explosion, with one witness telling CNN he saw the rocket fall with his own eyes. He said he smelled a pungent odor and then heard the sound of an explosion.
A government notice, later removed but reposted by a local villager after the launch, stated plans for a “rocket debris recovery mission” in Xinba Town, near Xianqiao Village, from 2:45 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. local time on Saturday. Residents were advised to evacuate their homes and other structures an hour before the launch and go to open areas to observe the sky. The notice warned against going near the debris to avoid possible harm from toxic gases and explosions.
According to the notice, residents are strictly prohibited from taking photographs of the debris or circulating related videos online.
Local officials said there were no immediate casualties in the incident.
Markus Schiller, a rocket expert and associate senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, identified the debris as possibly a booster from the first stage of a Long March 2C rocket. He found that the rocket used a highly toxic liquid propellant made of nitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH), which creates distinctive orange smoke trails and poses significant health risks due to its toxicity and carcinogenic nature.
“This combination always creates a trail of orange smoke. It is extremely toxic and carcinogenic,” Schiller said. “Every living creature that inhales this substance will have a hard time in the near future,” he added.
Schiller stressed that such incidents are not uncommon in China, given the geographical location of its launch sites. Rockets typically launch eastward to take advantage of the Earth's rotation for extra thrust, often passing over villages in the booster's trajectory during the early stages of flight.
China operates three primary inland launch sites: Xichang in the southwest, Jiuquan in the Gobi Desert in the northwest, and Taiyuan in the north, all established during the Cold War for security reasons, and far from coastal areas.
In 2016, China inaugurated its fourth launch site in Wenchang on Hainan Island, the country's far southern province, reflecting its continued expansion and development in space exploration capabilities.
In contrast, NASA and the European Space Agency launch primarily from coastal locations into the open ocean, reducing the risk of falling debris hitting populated areas.
Western space agencies have largely phased out the use of highly toxic liquid propellants in favor of safer alternatives for civilian space programs, a move that China and Russia have not yet adopted.
Multi-stage rockets, such as the Long March series, emit debris in the initial phase immediately after launch, and the trajectory is usually predicted and managed before launch.
Before each launch, China's civil aviation authority issues notices to pilots known as NOTAMs, marking “temporary danger areas” where rocket debris could fall.
Instances of rocket debris impacting villages in China have been recorded before, including an incident in December 2023 when rocket debris damaged two houses in southern Hunan province. In 2002, fragments of a satellite launch injured a boy in Shanxi province when they fell in his village.
“I expect we'll see something like this for many years to come,” Schiller said.
The international space community has previously criticised China over its handling of debris from uncontrolled rocket boosters that re-enter Earth's atmosphere.
In 2021, NASA had slammed China for failing to adhere to responsible standards after debris from a Long March 5B rocket crashed uncontrollably into the Indian Ocean, west of the Maldives, reports CNN. (ANI)