Residents across the country have been warned to watch out for debris from a rocket launched by the government of South Korea before dawn yesterday.
The Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA) said that the Nuri or Korea Space Launch Vehicle IV took off at 12:13 a.m. from the Naro Space Center in Goheung County, South Jeolla.
PhilSA plotted a vast drop zone for materials that may fall from the rocket, starting from the waters off Cagayan in Luzon to the coast of Davao Oriental in Mindanao.
‘Expected debris from the rocket launch was projected to have fallen within the identified drop zone, approximately 390 nautical miles from Santa Ana in Cagayan, 394 NM from Babuyan Island, 218 NM from Siargao in Surigao del Norte, 228 NM from Mati in Davao Oriental and 232 NM from Mercedes in Samar,’ PhilSA said in an advisory.
Residents have been reminded not to touch or come near the debris as this may contain remnants of toxic substances like rocket fuel.
As a standard operating procedure for every rocket launch, PhilSA disseminated a pre-launch report to relevant government agencies and authorities about the aerospace flight activity.
The South Korean government developed the Nuri rocket to launch its own satellites into the space.