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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Sam Jones in Madrid and agency

Spanish airspace partially closed as Chinese rocket debris falls to Earth

China’s Long March 5B rocket blasts off on Monday from the Wencheng launch site in Hainan province
China’s Long March 5B rocket blasts off on Monday from the Wencheng launch site in Hainan province. Photograph: VCG/Getty Images

A hefty chunk of the massive rocket used to deliver the third module of China’s Tiangong space station has fallen back to Earth uncontrolled, triggering the closure of some of Spain’s airspace and leading to hundreds of flight delays.

Four days after blasting off from southern China, a large part of the Long March 5B (CZ-5B) rocket broke up as it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the south-central Pacific ocean at 10.01 UTC, according to European and US space authorities.

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