Chinese rocket debris falls to Earth, no reported damage

The Chinese agency gave no details of where the remaining debris will fall, land or sea. But it said that the 'landing area' was at 119° east longitude and 9.1° north latitude. The location is the waters southeast of Palawan's capital city of Puerto Princesa.

Currently there is no reported damage in the western Philippine region where the debris from the rocket reportedly fell. The Philippine Space Agency officials said that authorities should keep a lookout for the rocket debris, which may have splashed down into seawaters off Palawan province.

The remains of a separate cargo spacecraft that serviced the station fell into a predetermined area of the South Pacific after most of it burned up on re-entry, the Chinese government announced earlier. The country's first space station, Tiangong-1, crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2016 after Beijing confirmed it lost control. An 18-ton rocket fell uncontrolled in May 2020.

China has faced criticism in the past for allowing rocket stages to fall to Earth uncontrolled twice before. NASA accused Beijing of "failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris", after part of the Chinese rocket landed in the Indian Ocean. With the latest incident, the Philippine Space Agency was not informed of any rocket debris from its Chinese counterpart.