Falling debris of China`s Moon rover damages houses

Beijing: Large pieces of debris from the rocket carrying China`s first Moon rover landed in a village more than a thousand kilometres from the launch site, damaging two houses.

Pieces of debris damaged the houses in Suining county of central Hunan province but no injuries were reported, Zeng Jiancheng, an official from the county`s People`s Armed Forces Departments (PAFD) said. The owners of the broken houses have been reimbursed by the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, the official said. The Chang`e-3 lunar probe was successfully launched at 1:30 am from Xichang in southwest China`s Sichuan province on Monday. Debris from the rocket crashed into the granary of Yang Weihan, a villager in Wawutang township, Suining County. The debris created a large hole on the roof of the granary as it crashed into it and a ton of rice was also ruined by the tiles and beams broken by the wreckage of the rocket, said Yang. After field evaluations, Yang was given compensation of 10,800 yuan (USD 1,772). Yuan Shifa, another owner of a broken house hit by a 1.5-meter long rocket piece, received 5,200 (about USD 900) yuan in compensation. Over 1.60 lakh people living in 11 townships of the county were evacuated to avoid danger from falling rocket pieces before the launch, Zeng said. Since 1992, Suining has seen many village evacuations during about 30 launches of rockets from Xichang, Zeng said.