#WH can’t say if China will be punished if orbital rocket causes damage

The White House is declining to say if and how China would be held accountable if the massive rocket they sent into orbit last week causes damage as it is expected to make an uncontrolled re-entry to Earth.

Speaking to reporters at her daily briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declined to provide a firm answer when asked about accountability for Beijing if debris from the Chinese Long March 5B were to harm anyone.

“The United States is committed to addressing the risks of growing congestion due to space debris and growing activity in space and we want to work with the international community to promote leadership and responsible space behaviors,” Psaki began.

“It’s in the shared interests of all nations to act responsibly in space to ensure the safety, stability, security and long-term sustainability of outer space activities, so cooperation is a hallmark of our approach. We’re going to work with our international partners on that, and certainly addressing this is something we’ll do through those channels,” she continued.

Pressed further on the matter, specifically how the White House would respond to the Chinese Communist Party’s continued reckless behavior with regard to their space program, Psaki said that she would “refer to the advice and guidance from US Space Command and Department of Defense and others.”

“I think we’d, of course, refer to the advice and guidance from US Space Command and Department of Defense and others, but we’re not at this point. We’re certainly tracking its location through US Space Command, and hopefully that’s not the outcome that we are working through.”

When the 22-ton core component separated from the rest of the massive rocket, the remaining portion was supposed to take a predetermined path that would send it falling into the ocean.

Instead, it is orbiting unpredictably.

There are several possible places where debris that survives re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere could crash down. Among them are New York, Madrid and Beijing in the Northern Hemisphere and southern Chile and Wellington, New Zealand, in the Southern.

Its exact landing is impossible to predict due to its current velocity, but the most likely outcome will be it falling into the ocean or uninhabited regions, which account for a large portion of the projected range.

“It’s potentially not good,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Astrophysics Center at Harvard University, told the Guardian following last Thursday’s launch.

“Last time they launched a Long March 5B rocket they ended up with big long rods of metal flying through the sky and damaging several buildings in the Ivory Coast,” McDowell said.

“Most of it burned up, but there were these enormous pieces of metal that hit the ground. We are very lucky no one was hurt,” he added.