Chinese rocket remnants re-enter atmosphere over Maldives, China reports

A huge piece of space junk made an uncontrolled re-entry back into Earth's atmosphere on Saturday night at 10:24 ET, according to China's space agency. The remnants of a rocket re-entered the atmosphere over Maldives and likely crashed into the Indian Ocean, according to data from China.

Space-Track also confirmed the rocket was down and said it believes it crashed into the Indian Ocean, however, it is waiting on official data from the 18th Space Control Squadron to determine where exactly the rocket crashed. The remnants were left over from China's first module for its new Tianhe space station. The 23-ton Chinese rocket Long March-5B recently launched the first module for the country's new space station into orbit. After the core separated from the rest of the rocket, it should have followed a predetermined flight path into the ocean.