Updated 1.15pm with Transport Malta reply
The remnants of a massive Chinese rocket are expected to fall to Earth on Saturday and may affect Maltese airspace, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency has warned.
EU space surveillance and tracking experts estimate that debris generated by the 20-tonne rocket will enter the Earth’s atmosphere between Saturday and Sunday.
The debris will fall to Earth in an uncontrolled entry, making it impossible for experts to precisely calculate where exactly the rocket remnants will land.
But the EASA believes that Malta is among the countries that should be on alert. Debris may also land in airspace belonging to Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal or Spain, it said.
These countries have been advised to implement and notify airspace restrictions for a 200km-wide path around the forecasted reentry paths.
A more detailed prediction could be available only a few hours before impact,” the agency said.
The 53m-long Long March CZ-5B rocket took off from Hainan Island, China on July 24 and delivered a new module to China's space station on Monday.
Once its job was completed, the rocket went into an uncontrolled descent toward Earth’s atmosphere, without a clear indication of where it will land.
While many large-scale rocket systems are equipped with systems that allow for debris to be returned to Earth in a controlled manner, the Chinese rocket had no such systems in place.
The CZ-5B has an estimated mass ranging between 17 and 22 tons, which makes it one of the largest pieces of debris re-entering the atmosphere in recent years, the agency said as it urged “careful monitoring”.
“At this time, the safety concern is not considered to be an unsafe condition that would warrant Safety Directive (SD) action,” it added.
Notice to airmen issued
A Transport Ministry spokesperson told Times of Malta that civil aviation departments of potentially affected countries had discussed the situation, to coordinate their response.
Local authorities consider the risk of any damage to be low and have therefore limited their response to issuing a notice to airmen for the time being, the spokesperson said.
A notice to airmen, or NOTAM, is a notice issued to aircraft pilots to warn them of potential hazards or complications in an area in which they are flying.
The Chinese government has said that it is monitoring the rocket debris' descent but has downplayed the risk of debris damaging aviation, property or people.
The situation mirrors a similar incident from 2021, when debris from a Chinese rocket prompted similar warnings. On that occasion, the debris landed in the Indian Ocean.