Uncontrolled re-entry of large portion of Chinese rocket; no adverse effect to SL- Prof. Jayaratne

Elaborating on a large portion of a Chinese rocket is set to land into the Earth’s atmosphere at 2.52 am tomorrow (09), Prof. Chandana Jayaratne of the Department of Physics, Colombo University said there could be no adverse effect on Sri Lanka.

He told the Daily Mirror that the time of landing could be six hours after or before 2.52 am.

"It is extremely difficult to predict as to where it might land and however, it is likely to land in the Pacific ocean," he said.

It is 30m (100 ft) long and weighs over 20,000 kg. 

The piece of debris is the core booster stage of the Long March 5B rocket that launched the Tianhe core module, the first module of the new Chinese space station Tiangong-3, on 29 April. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)