Pieces of the rocket as expected to burn up during re-entry from space. (Representational Pic)
A Chinese rocket that sent the Yunhai 3 satellite into orbit broke up at least 500 kilometres above the surface of the Earth, creating 50 new pieces of space junk that have spread like a cloud. According to a report in Forbes, the rocket lifted off on Saturday, November 12, but the mission did not go according to the plan. The rocket's upper stage, after releasing the satellite, suffered a break-up event, adding to the threat of space debris in low-Earth orbit.
This comes weeks after 23-tonne debris of a massive Chinese rocket hit the Earth after uncontrolled re-entry. The piece was part of the Long March 5B rocket that launched the third and final module of China's new Tiangong space station. The rocket that exploded on Saturday was the Long March 6A.
The United States Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron announced the break-up on Twitter on Sunday. The SDS said that it is "incorporating (the incident) into routine conjunction assessment to support spaceflight safety".
"It appears the rocket body failed shortly after releasing the Yunhai-3 payload, as observations from 2 consecutive passes over the US in the hours after launch show fuel leaking from the rocket," tweeted astronaut Cees Bassa, who spotted dozens of pieces.
Officially, there is no confirmation about the reason for the breaking-up of the rocket.
"All pieces were tumbling fast, giving very distinct flash patterns," he said in another tweet in the thread.
For now, there is no immediate threat. As per the Forbes report, the pieces of the rocket are likely to burn up while being pulled back to Earth's atmosphere.
Meanwhile, Yunhai 3 was successfully deployed and is expected to be unaffected by the explosion, the outlet further said.