Not long ago, the Philippine Coast Guard released a message that local fishermen found a large piece of debris in the nearby waters, the length of the wreckage is nearly 4 meters, the width of the wreckage is painted with the pattern of the Chinese flag and the Chinese manned space logo, and some Chinese characters are also clearly visible, proving that this wreckage comes from the Long March 5B Yaosan carrier rocket launched by China in July carrying the Wentian Experimental Module, and the wreckage left by the rocket fairing after it broke away from the arrow body.
Note: Wreckage caught by Filipino fishermen
In fact, picking up the wreckage of the rocket is not a big fuss. As we all know, although the launch vehicle is large, the part that can actually enter the correct orbit is less than 2% of the total mass of the entire rocket. Taking the Long March 5 carrier rocket as an example, the GTO orbital payload of this type of rocket is 14 tons, but the take-off weight of the entire rocket is as high as 878 tons, and the payload coefficient is only 1.59%.
Photo note: Long March 5 carrier rocket
In other words, in addition to the 14 tons of cargo as a payload, the rest of the rocket will become wreckage after launch. Depending on where the wreckage is formed, these rocket wreckage can be roughly divided into two types, one is the outer wreckage of the atmosphere and the other is the wreckage inside the atmosphere.
As the name suggests, extra-atmospheric debris refers to the wreckage formed by a rocket in a weightless environment after flying out of the atmosphere, usually composed of the rocket's second stage and its higher arrow body, formed after the load is separated from the arrow body.
Since the location of the wreckage formation is located in the orbit of the satellite, these wreckage will not fall at the first time, but will float in orbit for 1 week to 1 month, and finally re-enter the atmosphere under the pull of gravity, and burn when re-entering the atmosphere, completing harmless treatment.
The last remnants of the Long March 5 rocket re-entered the atmosphere and burned at the end of last month, passing just over Malaysia during the re-entry, offering a "meteor shower" from China to local residents.
Caption: Re-entry "meteor shower" photographed by local residents
The fairings picked up by Filipino fishermen are atmospheric debris, the wreckage of the rocket that separated before it entered orbit. Since the wreckage itself is still affected by air resistance and gravity when it separates, this part of the wreckage will fall immediately after separation.
Because the height of this part of the debris formation is relatively low, the wreckage will not have a serious ablation problem when it falls, and it can be retained in a relatively complete state. That's why Filipino fishermen were able to identify the Chinese flag and manned spaceflight project logo painted on the surface of the wreckage after picking up the wreckage.
In general, as long as human space technology stops at the rocket stage, then rocket launches will inevitably produce wreckage.
But you don't have to worry about being hit by rocket debris when you walk down the street, because today's Chinese space team has long been able to control the timing of rocket wreckage formation and guide the wreckage to fall into a designated no-man's land. Whether it is the "meteor shower" seen by Malaysian residents or the fairings picked up by Filipino fishermen, they are actually calculated by the Chinese space team.
Of course, even if China's aerospace industry does a good job, some people will not let go of the opportunity to splash dirty water.
In fact, even before the Fishermen in the Philippines picked up the wreckage of the fairing, the Western media led by the United States was already hyping up the Chinese rocket threat theory. In their report, the ordinary debris re-entry into the atmosphere is described as "Chinese rockets falling out of control", and those who do not know it also think that Chinese rockets failed to launch and fell.
And this malice is not limited to the media, as NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has previously publicly slandered China's Long March 5 wreckage as "out of control" and "potentially dangerous," saying China did not share information about the wreckage with the United States. As everyone knows, China has issued 4 announcements as early as 3 days before the re-entry, and Nielsen's accusation is simply nothing wrong.
In fact, director Nielsen will use this kind of reason to accuse and slander China for no reason. Because the United States itself is the largest "producer" of runaway rocket wreckage. As far away as March 2021, the wreckage of a Falcon 9 rocket launched by the United States fell out of control on a farm in Washington State. More recently, in July 2022, space debris from the U.S. launch of the Dragon spacecraft crashed into a ranch in Australia.
Image note: The wreckage of an American rocket that fell in Australia
Although the fallen debris did not cause casualties, judging from the fact that the fall was too close to the residential area, the American-made wreckage was clearly more in line with what Nelson called "potentially dangerous objects."
Photo note: Local Australian residents posing with the wreckage
The reason why Western countries will use this rocket wreckage to slander and smear us is purely because they are afraid and jealous of China's development in the field of space and are red-eyed by China's extraordinary achievements in spaceflight. After all, China has become the only country in the world today that has a domestic space station, and their own international space station is about to close in the future. Wanting them not to be jealous is obviously unlikely.