An out-of-control Chinese rocket plunged out of orbit Saturday night ET and reentered Earth’s atmosphere, according to China’s space agency.
The Long March 5B carrier rocket had an estimated landing area just west of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean, China’s National Space Agency said in a post on WeChat.
The space agency said most of the rocket was “destroyed” on reentry. The 108 foot tall, 40,000 pound rocket had launched a piece of a new Chinese space station into orbit on April 29.
The European Space Agency had predicted a “risk zone” that covered “any portion of Earth’s surface between about 41.5N and 41.5S latitude.”
That included virtually all of the Americas south of New York, all of Africa and Australia, parts of Asia south of Japan and Europe’s Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.
