The United States and China are “fighting” for the Truong Chinh 5B missile

In China, news of the 5B Truong Chinh missile fragments falling into the Indian Ocean was not only viewed as a plea, but also used by the media to argue that the world was paying too much attention to the incident. it is just a Western attempt to discredit and hinder Beijing’s development of the space program.

Missile Truong Chinh 5B. Photo: AFP On April 29, the missile Truong Chinh 5B, 30 meters long and weighs more than 21 tons, was launched into space, bringing the first module of Thien Cung space station into orbit. Since then, China’s largest missile started a free fall, raising fears that its remains would not be burned off and could fall into a residential area. Finally, on May 9, the China Manned Space Engineering Office confirmed most of the missile’s components were separated and burned when they crashed into the atmosphere. Particularly the rest fell into the western waters of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. For many who followed the incident, the above information helped them breathe a sigh of relief. However, the China Global Times accused US scientists and the US Aerospace Agency (NASA) of “acting contrary to conscience”. The newspaper said that the American scientific community was jealous of China’s remarkable progress in space technology, and argued that its “exaggerated and defamatory efforts” were not working. China was slow in space exploration, launching its first satellite in 1970, 13 and 12 years after the former Soviet Union and the US did the same thing. But in recent decades, Beijing has accelerated in a space race, most prominently becoming the first country to launch a probe (Hang Nga-4) into the shadow of the Moon in 2019. Last year. , Hang Nga-5 spacecraft even successfully collected and brought rock samples from Ms. Hang to Earth. China justifies how to handle the missile Regarding the Truong Chinh 5B missile incident, NASA Director Bill Nelson on May 9 criticized China for its irresponsibility and transparency in reducing the risk of space objects returning to the atmosphere. Beijing “did not meet responsibility standards” in dealing with space debris, he said. In response, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hoa Xuan Oanh said the country was being treated unfairly. Ms. Hoa cited the case when the rocket fragment of SpaceX Space Company (USA) fell on a farm in Washington state in March, the flag country media used “romantic words” like “shooting star”. lighting up the night sky ”to describe. But when it’s China’s turn, it’s a completely different approach. Ms. Hoa emphasized that China has closely watched the missile’s path and made advance notices on the situation of reintegration. According to Zhang Borong, a missile design engineer at the China Academy of Launching Equipment Technology, it is incorrect to say that Changzheng 5B’s atmospheric reintegration case is unpredictable of the dropping point. It is not possible to make an accurate prediction because the re-import process can be affected by many factors, including small changes in the compressed air environment. No country has the ability to accurately predict the shape, size or number of these missiles’ debris or their grounding range, Zhang said. However, it is unclear why China put the core of the missile into orbit, instead of leaving the rocket in the lower orbit as other countries do to ensure the safety of the ground when it is. re-enter. Usually, rocket manufacturers take precautions to avoid falling debris, but the Truong Chinh 5B missile does not have a power steering, stabilization system and restartable engine. Truong Chinh 5B is the largest space object returned to Earth in a state of “out of control” for nearly three decades. The missile is just one of 11 launches that Beijing needs to take to bring the entire module of the Tianjing Space Station into orbit. HANH NGUYEN (According to CNN)