KUCHING: The relevant agencies were urged to spread early information of instances such as the falling rocket debris or incidents of similar nature in the future.
Deputy Minister of Energy and Environmental Sustainability Dr Hazland Abang Hipni said this is warn the people in advance of debris falling from the sky and ease their anxiety.
“Necessary efforts need to be done to prevent causing anxiety among the netizens or leading to casualties and property damage, although the incident was unavoidable and difficult to control,” he said.
He said the unrest among the netizens, especially in Sarawak, arose due to a lack of prior information about the incident.
“In this regard, the agency tasked with overseeing national space operations or phenomena needs to establish a specific mechanism to allow parties to receive early notice of any incidents that happen in the national airspace.
“This effort is crucial so that the information discovered earlier may be rapidly disseminated to people across the nation through various mediums, notably social media, to enable them to be willing to take action in order to be in a safer area.
“However, we should be thankful the event involving the Long March 5B rocket debris that was reported to have entered the state’s airspace on Sunday midnight did not result in any injuries or property damage,” he said today.
He said members of the public were concerned and questioned whether the incident could cause a major disaster to the environment and public safety.
Several media outlets reported that the re-entry of debris from China’s Long March 5B rocket into the earth’s atmosphere was detected over Malaysian skies and the burning debris also crossed over Malaysian airspace and could be detected in several areas including over Sarawak.
Previously, international media outlets had reported that the debris was part of a rocket belonging to China which was launched on July 24 from the Wenchang Space Launch Site in Wenchang, Hainan.
