A Chinese rocket that was making an uncontrolled plummet towards the Earth has landed in the Indian Ocean, China said.
The Long March 5B rocket was launched on April 29th from Wenchang Space Launch Centre.
The spacecraft was carrying Tianhe, the first module of China's future space station, into orbit.
It re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at 3.24am Irish time, with the bulk of its components destroyed at that point, according to Chinese state media.
The point of impact was somewhere southwest of India and Sri Lanka, they added.
While the timing of the landing had been pinpointed closely, the possible landing site had been unclear until the last minutes of the rocket's descent.
At one stage it was thought the debris trail could fall as far north as New York, Madrid, or Beijing, and as far south as Chile and New Zealand.
⚠️UPDATE: Based on the last pass over Europe and external information, #EUSST confirms that object CZ-5B R/B re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere on 2021-05-09 at 02:32 UTC ±25 min. #Tianhe #LongMarch5B
— EUSST (@EU_SST) May 9, 2021
Most of the Earth's surface is covered by water so the odds of the debris falling on land were low, and the likelihood of hitting people was even lower, experts had said.
There has been criticism of China's handling of the situation, with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin saying: "There should be a requirement to operate in a safe and thoughtful mode and make sure that we take those kinds of things into consideration as we plan and conduct operations."
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast with Susan Keogh yesterday, Space commentator Leo Enright said there had been a "great deal of unhappiness" from many nations around the world over China's move to let the rocket fall uncontrolled.
"There is an understanding internationally that if you put something up into space, you must take responsibility to ensure it comes back in some sort of controlled manner," Mr Enright said.
"Generally what people do is they aim their rocket engines so that whatever falls down falls into the Pacific Ocean entirely harmlessly.
"The Chinese have not done this with this rocket stage, it's a particularly large object, one of the largest ever to fall uncontrolled onto the Earth.
"The last time they launched one of these almost a year ago, it fell onto a little village in the Ivory Coast in southwest Africa so they really need to get their act together, it is disturbing."
Additional reporting by IRN
