China rocket debris hits two homes, experts urge insurance

[Buster's Uncle]

China rocket debris hits two homes, experts urge insurance
Reuters  15 hours ago



Visitors take pictures of a prototype model of a lunar rover at the 15th China International Industry Fair in Shanghai



SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Two houses in China were damaged by falling pieces of a rocket launched on Monday, prompting calls for an insurance scheme to cover future damage from the country's ambitious space program, the China Daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.

No casualties were reported after the successful launch of China's first moon rover, Chang'e-3, from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in the southwestern province of Sichuan, but debris from the launch hurtled into a village in neighboring Hunan province.

A photograph in the newspaper showed a farmer standing by a desk-sized chunk of the rocket that had apparently smashed through his wooden roof.

"Suppose the rocket wreckage hit a person; what would the authorities do?" the paper quoted Ren Zili, a professor of insurance laws at Beihang University, as saying.

One person whose home was damaged received 10,800 yuan ($1,800) as compensation and the other received 5,200 yuan, it said.

Ren called for a program to handle compensation in such cases, rather than dealing with each on an individual basis.

More than 180,000 residents of Sichuan and Hunan were relocated before the launch of the Chang'e-3 lunar probe, the paper said.

The number of launches has climbed to as many as 20 each year, Zhang Jianheng, deputy general manager with the China Aerospace Science and Technology Cooperation, told the official Xinhua news agency.

China is also studying ways to build recoverable rockets that leave no wreckage, to solve the problem once and for all.

China successfully completed its latest manned space mission in June, when three astronauts spent 15 days in orbit and docked with an experimental space laboratory critical in Beijing's quest to build a working space station by 2020.

($1=6.0924 yuan)


http://news.yahoo.com/china-rocket-debris-hits-two-homes-experts-urge-050504503.html

[Buster's Uncle]

China's Space Launches Send People Below Running for Cover
ABC News
By Kaijing Xiao  7 hours ago



Chinas Space Launches Send People Below Running for Cover



A day after China trumpeted the successful launch of its first-ever robotic lunar rover, state media reported a sobering footnote: more than 180,000 residents of southwestern Sichuan and southern Hunan provinces were evacuated to keep them from being hit by falling debris from the rocket. No casualties were reported, but two farmhouses in Hunan were damaged.

The "fallout" from this latest space mission is another example of a massive and prestigious state-funded project whose risks to local populations are often overlooked.

China's most ambitious space mission to date, the Chang'e-3 mission, blasted off smoothly at 1 a.m local time on Monday from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwestern Sichuan Province.

State media reported that nine minutes after the launch, Hunan farmer Yang Weihan and his wife were woken by a deafening sound. A piece of debris from the rocket crashed into his granary, punching a large hole in its roof.

"The sound was huge and scary, it was so much louder than thunder," Yang told the official China News Agency.

Another villager, Yuan Shifa, says his house was hit by a 1.5-meter long fragment from the rocket.

Yang and Yuan's village is located in Suining County, Hunan province. Rocket debris often rains down from the sky on this area. A county official told local media that since 1990, the villagers have been evacuated ahead of 30 rocket launches from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.

The rocket debris has damaged people's property. There have been two reported cases of people being killed by high-voltage power lines which were cut by falling rocket debris.

In this case, villager Yang got 10,800RMB ($1,772) in compensation from the Xichang Satelate Launch Center. Villager Yuan got 5,200RMB ($854).


http://news.yahoo.com/china-39-space-launches-send-people-below-running-154702924--abc-news-topstories.html