People in Brazil are examining debris believed to have belonged to a European spacecraft in 2014. Photo: Getty. Sea of ​​Japan (also known as East Sea) The phenomenon of space debris falling to the ground and causing damage was first recorded in 1969. That year, Japanese diplomats informed the United Nations of an unidentified object from space falling from space. down and collided with a Japanese cargo ship moving off the coast of Siberia (Russia). The collision seriously injured five crew members. Not long after, a Soviet ship at that time appeared to search for the wreckage. The Japanese official said the debris was identified by experts as part of a Soviet spacecraft. However, this information was initially kept secret by Tokyo because it did not want to create a conflict with Moscow, according to AP. Northwest Territories, Canada The danger of objects from space became apparent in 1978, when Cosmos 954, the Soviet Union’s atomic-powered satellite, crashed to Earth. The incident caused radioactive debris to be scattered throughout the Northwest Territories, Alberta, and the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. After the incident, the Canadian government organized a large-scale “Operation Morning Light” to search for tiny pieces of radioactive material that fell on the Arctic tundra. The cost for this campaign is nearly 14 million CAD (equivalent to 11.5 million USD). A fragment of the satellite Cosmos 954. Photo: United States Department of Energy. Canada demanded compensation from the Soviet Union at that time in the amount of 6 million CAD (equivalent to 5 million USD), but Moscow ended up paying only half of that amount. State of West Australia, Australia In 1979, Skylab – the first space station of the US Space Agency (NASA) – broke up while re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The incident caused a lot of debris to fall across the farm town of Esperance in West Australia, Australia. The Skylab space station was photographed by the last crew before it broke up on July 11, 1979. Photo: NASA. “It’s the most beautiful fireworks display you’ll ever see,” Brendan Freeman, a retired farmer, told ABC. The debris did not cause major damage, but for fun, the town of Esperance authorities wrote a $ 400 NASA fine for littering. NASA did not pay the fine, possibly out of fear of setting an unfavorable precedent. In 2009, a DJ in the city of Barstow, California (USA) called for fundraising and brought the fine to pay the town of Esperance. Lakeport, California, USA Early one weekend in 1987, a retired aircraft mechanic living in a town near Mendocino National Forest in northern California heard what sounded like gunfire outside his bedroom window. After searching, he discovered a scorched metal piece more than 2m long lying in the alley next to the house. An analyst with the US Air Force determined that the object was most likely a piece of debris dropped from a Soviet missile. This rocket has previously been seen flying across the sky while burning up and falling to Earth. “It’s interesting because things like that don’t happen around here very often,” Maggie Pickle, the mechanic’s neighbor, told the AP. Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA Lottie Williams holds up a piece of debris that hit her shoulder from a US Delta II rocket in 1997. Photo: Tulsa World. One morning in 1997, Lottie Williams was walking with friends in Tulsa City Park when she saw what appeared to be a comet streaking across the sky. This object fell on Mrs. Williams’ shoulder, but the impact was very light, almost without feeling. This object was determined by scientists to be most likely a fragment of a US Delta II rocket. The fragment was kept by Mrs. Williams as a souvenir. “I had to be very lucky for the debris to be so light. It was one of the strangest things that ever happened to me,” Williams told NPR in an interview years later. East Texas and Louisiana, USA, In 2003, the US space shuttle Columbia broke up while re-entering the atmosphere, killing 7 astronauts on board. In places where the debris of the shuttle hit the ground, temporary memorials were erected for the crew. People in rural areas along the Texas-Louisiana state border reported seeing debris from the ship falling into a water storage tank or through the roof of a dental office. Someone even tried to sell a fragment on the e-commerce site eBay for $ 10,000. In the end, 84,000 pieces of wreckage from the wrecked ship were collected after an extensive search in swamps, woodlands, and grasslands. These debris were used to rebuild the ship and determine the cause of the disaster. Ivory Coast In May 2020, another Chinese Long March 5B rocket also crashed to Earth. The rocket was initially thought to have landed in the Pacific Ocean, but some people reported hearing a sonic boom and seeing metal shards falling from the sky. This shows that some parts of the Long March 5B missile fell on the village of Mahounou, in Ivory Coast. China’s Long March 5B rocket launch in late April in Hainan province. Photo: Getty. However, there were no reports of human casualties after the incident. The discovery of a piece of pipe more than 12 meters long also seems to help this area get more attention. Grant County, Washington State, USA The most recent space debris incident occurred just over a month ago, when a rocket owned by private aerospace company SpaceX exploded over the Pacific Northwest. The explosion created a “show of light,” which some initially mistook for a meteor shower, according to The Verge. A piece of equipment from the rocket fell on a farm in Washington state, leaving a mark more than 12cm deep in the ground, The Verge reported. A similar object was also discovered by fishermen off the Oregon coast a few days later, but authorities have not confirmed whether this is debris from a SpaceX rocket.

On April 29, at the Van Xuong spacecraft launch center in Hainan province, China successfully launched the first module of the Tianhe space station with the Truong Chinh 5B rocket, marking an important step in the build the country’s own space station. However, instead of falling to a predetermined place in the sea like the previous rockets, the central stage of the Truong Chinh 5B boosters started spinning around the Earth in a low orbit in a state of out-of-control. With a weight of about 21 tons, 30m long and 5m wide, the remnants of the Truong Chinh 5B rocket are flying in orbit around the Earth every 90 minutes / rev, at a speed of 27,600 km / h at an altitude of over 300 kilometer. Since the end of last week until now, this remaining part has decreased altitude by nearly 80km. According to the observations of underground amateur astronomers, this missile is in a very unstable state. Some calculations show that the central floor of the Truong Chinh 5B missile will plunge into the atmosphere on May 8. When it crosses the Earth’s atmosphere, it could be burned, but it is likely that large pieces of the missile will remain and will fall scattered over an area of ​​160km wide. Worth mentioning, this is not the first time that China’s Truong Chinh 5B missile has fallen into a state of out-of-control during the biosphere. In May 2020, a similar incident happened. Beijing is expected to have at least 10 more similar launches, bringing all additional equipment into orbit, before completing the station by 2022. China’s Truong Chinh 5B missile was launched into orbit on April 29 at the Wenchang launch pad, southern China. . Prior to the US Space Command’s forecast that the 2021-035B Truong Chinh 5B (Long March 5B or Chang Zheng 5B) missile core, called 2021-035B, was capable of falling uncontrollably on Earth on the day. May 8-9, many people questioned: Will Russia or the US plan to use the missile to shoot the core of the Truong Chinh 5B missile, to save the planet’s citizens? On May 6, the US said it was tracking the object’s path, but had no plans to shoot it down. Cosmic garbage Australia currently holds the record as the country that contains the largest space waste in the world. In 1979, the 77-ton American SkyLab space station disintegrated in Western Australia, leaving the area around the coastal town of Esperance splashed by debris. Although no deaths or serious injuries have been reported from being hit by these cosmic debris, it is quite dangerous. Just a year before the fall of SkyLab, a Soviet remote sensing satellite, Cosmos 954, crashed into a barren area of ​​Canada’s Northwest Territory, spreading radioactive debris over several hundred square kilometers. As the Cold War was at its height, the nuclear sensitivity of the Cosmos 954 led to unfortunate delays in locating and cleaning the wreck. Who has to pay for cleaning? International law sets out a compensation regime that applies in many cases of damage on Earth, as well as when satellites collide in space. The 1972 conventions, a United Nations treaty, impose liability for the damage caused by space debris, which includes a regime of absolute liability as they fall to Earth like fragments. crumbs. In the case of Long March 5B, this would impose potential liability on China. The new treaty has only been invoked once before (for the Cosmos 954 incident) and therefore may not be considered a incentive. Of course, this legal framework only applies after the damage has occurred. In 1978, a Soviet nuclear-powered satellite crashed in northern Canada, resulting in a $ 3,000,000 fine for the tundra radioactive cleanup for Canada.