Ministry of Science and ICT: "Chinese Rocket Debris to Fall into Indian Ocean Around 11:30 AM"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 9th that, according to a crash message from the U.S. Space Operations Command (CSpOC), the debris of the Changzheng-5B rocket was confirmed to have fallen into the Indian Ocean southwest of India at around 11:30 a.m. that day.

Earlier, on the 6th, the Ministry of Science and ICT predicted, based on the analysis results from the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), a space hazard monitoring agency, that the debris of the Changzheng-5B rocket would not fall within South Korea. On the 8th, about 20 hours before the actual crash, they presented a predicted crash time of 11:40 a.m. with a margin of error of ±2 hours and announced the predicted orbit where the crash was possible.

KASI explained that the reason the crash time was about 10 minutes earlier than initially predicted was that, according to the Electronic Optical Surveillance Network No. 5, the debris was rotating approximately once every 3 to 4 seconds while falling, causing it to descend faster than originally expected, but this was within the initial prediction's margin of error.