Tumbling Chinese Rocket Expected To Re-Enter Atmosphere May 8

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is being briefed regularly about the trajectory of the Long March 5B rocket core, which successfully put a portion of China's first space station into orbit last month, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday.

The Pentagon said it expects a tumbling Chinese rocket to fall out of orbit and re-enter the Earth's atmosphere on Saturday, though officials say it's too early to predict where any debris will land. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is being briefed regularly about the trajectory of the Long March 5B rocket core, which successfully put a portion of China's first space station into orbit last month, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday. Yet while the rocket is being monitored by U.S. Space Command, Kirby said there's little the military can do about it at this point. "We don't have enough fidelity of information right now about re-entry and what that is going to look like to speak to specific actions one way or another," Kirby said. "We're just too far out right now to begin to speculate about what possibly could be in the offing here." The military's 18th Space Control Squadron started posting daily updates on the rocket's location on www.space-track.org this week.