Main Stage of Chinese Rocket Likely to Plunge to Earth This Weekend 

BEIJING - The largest section of the rocket that launched the main module of China's first permanent space station into orbit is expected to plunge back to Earth as early as Saturday at an unknown location.

Such rocket sections — discarded core, or first stage — usually reenter soon after liftoff, normally over water, and don't go into orbit as this one did. China's space agency has yet to say whether the core stage of the huge Long March 5B rocket is being controlled or will make an out-of-control descent. Last May, another Chinese rocket fell uncontrolled into the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa. Basic details about the rocket stage and its trajectory are unknown because the Chinese government has yet to comment publicly on the reentry. Phone calls to the China National Space Administration weren't answered Wednesday, a holiday.