In an unexpected and dramatic turn of events, debris from a suspected Chinese rocket was seen falling over a village in Sichuan province, reported CNN.
After a video began circulating on Chinese video-sharing platforms showing what appears to be rocket debris, it also reached the social media platform X. In the video, a large, cylindrical object can be seen descending over a village, trailing smoke as it crashes near a hill. The impact caused yellow smoke to billow from the fallen debris, creating a somewhat eerie scene. Villagers, including children, are seen running and looking back at the falling object, with some covering their ears, presumably bracing themselves for the impact.
🇨🇳🇫🇷 China successfully launched the SVOM satellite but scared the village with its fall.
▪️China sent into orbit the (SVOM) telescope satellite, developed jointly with France. The launch from the Xichang cosmodrome was unsuccessful.
➖ No one was injured as a result of the fall. pic.twitter.com/GHN0mMXfqV— Иван ☦ (@lll_Tatarinov_H) June 23, 2024
The incident occurred just hours after China launched the Long March 2C rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre, sending a powerful satellite into orbit. The Long March 2C rocket, which took off at 3 pm local time (3 am Eastern Time) on June 22, was tasked with deploying the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM), developed in collaboration with France.
The satellite’s mission is to explore gamma-ray bursts, some of the most explosive events in the universe, helping scientists better understand these distant cosmic phenomena. China’s space program has been accelerating rapidly under President Xi Jinping’s leadership, with a clear ambition to establish the country as a dominant force in space exploration.
Despite the dramatic fall of the debris, no injuries were reported. Beijing Time June 22, 2024, 15:00: China-France SVOM satellite was launched by Long March 2C rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Center. This marks the 118th space launch in 2024, China’s 29th, 2nd this month, and 4th for Long March 2C.
Competing with space superpowers like the United States, China has been ramping up its missions, aiming to push the boundaries of space exploration.