Chinese rocket out of control, lands in the Indian Ocean

On April 29, the Long March 5B rocket was launched from Wenchang Space Launch Centre to carry Tianhe, China's first space station module, into orbit.

According to Chinese state media, it re-entered the atmosphere at 3.24 a.m. UK time, with the majority of its components destroyed.

The debris trail was thought to reach as far north as New York, Madrid, or Beijing, and as far south as Chile and New Zealand at one point.

Because water covers the majority of the Earth's surface, the chances of debris falling on land were slim, and the chances of it hitting people were even slimmer, according to experts.

They added that the impact point was somewhere southwest of India and Sri Lanka.

While the timing of the landing had been pinpointed quite closely, the possible landing site had been unclear until the last minutes of the rocket's descent.

Nevertheless, uncertainty over the rocket's condition and the vagueness of China's location forecasts had many people looking anxiously towards the sky as the expected landing grew closer.

There was some criticism of China's handling of the situation, with US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin saying: "There should be a requirement to operate in a safe and thoughtful mode and make sure that we take those kinds of things into consideration as we plan and conduct operations."

Harvard-based astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told Reuters news agency that, since chunks of NASA space station Skylab fell from orbit in 1979 and landed in Australia, most countries have adjusted their spacecraft design to avoid uncontrolled entries.

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"It makes the Chinese rocket designers look lazy that they didn't address this," he said.

Fears that the rocket would cause damage were played down by Chinese state media, who said it was "not worth panicking about," implying that it would crash somewhere in international waters.

Last year, debris from the first Long March fell on Ivory Coast, causing damage to several buildings but no injuries.

The rocket launch is part of China's growing space program, with at least ten more similar launches planned to carry equipment into orbit.