China said Monday there has been no report of harm on the ground after the country's large rocket re-entered Earth's atmosphere and its debris fell into the Indian Ocean near the Maldives the previous day.
"China has been closely tracking its trajectory and issued statements on the re-entry situation in advance," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters. "There was no need for some media to make exaggeration and create panic."
The Long March-5B Y2 rocket, which carried the core module of China's first space station into orbit, had blasted off from the southern island province of Hainan on April 29. The core stage of the rocket is roughly 30 meters long.
Part of the rocket landed at a location with the coordinates at longitude 72.47 degrees east and latitude 2.65 degrees north on Sunday morning, the official Xinhua News Agency reported, citing the China Manned Space Engineering Office.
The U.S. Space Command said it confirmed the rocket debris re-entered over the Arabian Peninsula, adding, "It is unknown if the debris impacted land or water."
Experts had warned that its uncontrolled re-entry could pose a danger, but China said the possibility of harm to aviation activities or people on the ground was "extremely low."
While China said most of the components would be ablated and destroyed during the re-entry process into the atmosphere, the United States criticized the Communist-led government for not fully managing the rocket's return to Earth.
In an attempt to develop new materials and promote the study of bioscience, China is scheduled to continue sending modules to complete the construction of the nation's first space station, named Tiangong, by the end of 2022.
The core cabin module will be able to house three crew members for an extended period in the future.
