• The remnants of China’s biggest rocket — Long March-5B — crashed into the Indian Ocean near the Maldives on May 9, with most of its components destroyed upon re-entry into the atmosphere, ending days of speculation over where the debris would hit.

• The bulk of the out-of-control rocket, which had put into orbit the core module of China’s planned space station on April 29, was mostly destroyed as it re-entered the atmosphere.  

• The Chinese Manned Space Engineering office said debris from the 18-tonne rocket, one of the largest items in decades to have an undirected dive into the atmosphere, landed in the Indian Ocean at a point 72.47 East and 2.65 North. There were no reports of injuries or damage.

• NASA criticised China, saying that it failed to meet responsible standards. Spacefaring nations must minimise the risks to people and property on Earth of re-entries of space objects and maximise transparency regarding those operations, it said.

• The Long March was the second deployment of the 5B variant since its maiden flight in May 2020. Last year, pieces from the first Long March 5B fell on Ivory Coast, damaging several buildings.

• It was the largest craft to crash to Earth since the US space laboratory, Skylab scattered debris over the southern Australian town of Esperance in 1979.

• Long March-5B launched the first module of China’s new Tianhe space station into Earth’s orbit on April 29. 

• Long March 5 rockets have been integral to China’s near-term space ambitions from the delivery of modules and crew of its planned space station to launches of exploratory probes to the Moon and even Mars.

• China is expected to carry out more launches in its space station programme in the coming weeks as it aims to complete the space station project next year.

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