The U.S. Space Command is tracking debris from a Chinese rocket that sent part of a planned space station into orbit last week and may reenter Earth’s atmosphere this weekend, the White House said on May 5.
The debris comes from the Long March 5B rocket launched on April 29 to deliver a new roughly 25-ton module for China’s Tianhe space station. The debris has since reached orbital velocity, meaning it’s circling the planet instead of falling back to Earth within a predetermined area as usually happens with the debris from U.S. launches.
