A Chinese rocket component reentered the earth’s atmosphere over the southern United States, a United States Space Command spokesperson confirmed to Breitbart News on Friday. The rocket reportedly disintegrated over Texas.
“U.S. Space Command can confirm the People’s Republic of China CZ-2D Rocket Body, SCC# 52910, reentered the Earth’s atmosphere over the southern region of North America at approximately 8:30 pm MT on March 7, 2023,” the spokesperson said, adding:
There was no physical impact to North America. Rocket bodies, satellites, and meteors reenter over the Earth on a regular basis, and most burn up in the atmosphere. This was an uncontrolled reentry, meaning it was not ‘steered’ but rather its orbit decayed and lowered naturally. This type of behavior reinforces the need for better international norms regarding high-risk uncontrolled reentries.
Although Spacecom confirmed the rocket component re-entered the earth’s atmosphere over the U.S., it did not mention a report by USNI News on Thursday that said the component “disintegrated” over Texas.
USNI News reported, citing two defense officials, that the rocket component “punched through the atmosphere on Wednesday over Texas at 17,000 miles per hour and disintegrated.”
According to USNI News, the rocket body was a “piece of space junk in low earth orbit” before its descent and no debris has been found yet.
The rocket component reportedly entered the atmosphere over West Texas near Marathon before heading on a northeast track between Abilene and Austin.
According to websites that track satellites, the component was from the body of a Chang Zheng 2D “Long March” rocket that launched June 23, 2022, from the Xichang Space Center in China, carrying three Chinese satellites into space.
The satellites were three military electronic signals surveillance satellites that were believed to be targeted over the South China Sea, astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics told the outlet.
[🔴China’s 21st launch in 2022] At UTC 02:22 June 23, 3 Yaogan(遥感/RemoteSensing)-35-02 satellites were successfully launched by #CZ2D Y64 rocket in Xichang, Sichuan. This is the 424th launch of Long March rocket family. HD: https://t.co/018SGyq48M pic.twitter.com/0kDtkg7hua
— CNSA Watcher (@CNSAWatcher) June 23, 2022
According to the China National Space Administration, the rocket is a two-stage launch vehicle with an overall length of 41.056 meters and a lift-off mass of 250 tons. The maiden flight of a Long March 2D rocket was in 1992.
According to USNI, the rocket can carry about 8,000 pounds of cargo into low earth orbit. After dropping off its payload, the second stage becomes space junk and can slowly circle the planet for years before plunging to Earth, it reported.
The reported “disintegration” of the rocket over Texas comes after China flew a giant 250-foot spy balloon over the continental U.S. in early February, prompting a diplomatic crisis and the U.S. military to shoot it down as it exited over South Carolina over the Atlantic Ocean.
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