Large space debris from Chinese rocket falls back to Earth

Debris from a rocket launched by China last week has reportedly fallen back to Earth.

The Long March 5B rocket, launched May 5, reentered the atmosphere Monday night, according to the U.S. Air Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron.

On the debris’ final orbit of the earth, its flight crossed over Los Angeles and New York City, Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told NBC News.

“It’s just a strange coincidence that it happened to fly over two major urban areas on its last orbit, but if it had come down earlier, there would have been some drama," McDowell told NBC. He added that the wreckage might have been large enough to take out a floor of building.

The space debris reportedly weighed about 20 tons, making it one of the largest clumps of man-made space junk ever to descend to Earth.