BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) --China's space station and its core module were sent into orbit on April 29 by a Long March-5B-2 carrier rocket, with the last stage of the rocket falling into the atmosphere, Xinhua reported.Experts from many countries believe that the safety risk posed by falling rocket debris is very low.
Typically, space debris burns up first and usually ends up in the ocean, Christophe Bonnard, a researcher at CNES and chairman of the International Astronautical Society's Space Waste Committee, told French newspaper Le Parisien.Only about 3% of the earth's surface is densely populated.Even though the final stage of the Long V B rocket is very large, the danger will be reduced if it burns up sufficiently on entry into the atmosphere.
According to experts cited in an article published by DPA on June 6, under normal circumstances, most objects will completely burn up when they re-enter the atmosphere.Because so much of the Earth's surface is covered by water, and so much of it is uninhabited, the risk to individuals is significantly lower than everyday risks such as driving a car.
The chances of anyone being hit by a piece of space junk are very small, not least because a large part of the Earth's surface is covered by sea, and even on land, a large area of it is uninhabited.Holger Klug, head of the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office, said the mass involved would not change the risk profile much from year to year, the Guardian website reported Wednesday.
"It is a very common practice for rocket debris to fall off and return to the earth," said Javier Schwassa, founder of Schwassa, Brazil's most popular online science channel.The final stages of the Long 5B rocket first rub, burn and break apart as they pass through the atmosphere. Very little of the debris actually falls to the surface, usually in uninhabited areas