Out-of-control Chinese rocket crashes near Maldives

Beijing : A large segment of a Chinese rocket re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Sunday and disintegrated over the Indian Ocean, said Chinese agency.

Officials in Beijing said that there was a very less risk from the freefalling segment of the Long March-5B rocket, which was launched on April 29.

NASA, on the other hand, called China irresponsible with their behavior. 

"After monitoring and analysis, at 10:24 (0224 GMT) on May 9, 2021, the last-stage wreckage of the Long March 5B Yao-2 launch vehicle has re-entered the atmosphere," the China Manned Space Engineering Office said in a statement, providing coordinates for a point in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.

It also mentioned that during the descent, most parts were destroyed in the atmosphere.

The US military's Space Command said the rocket "re-entered over the Arabian Peninsula at approximately 10:15 pm EDT on May 8 (0215 GMT Sunday)".

"It is unknown if the debris impacted land or water."

Monitoring service Space-Track, which uses US military data, said that the location in Saudi Arabia was where American systems last recorded it.

"Operators confirm that the rocket actually went into the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives," it tweeted.

Since it was an uncontrolled descent, there was enough speculations over the landing site of the rocket debris.