Debris from the rocket carrying China’s first moon rover plummeted to earth in a village more than a thousand kilometres from the launch site, crashing into two homes, a report said on Tuesday.
The incident about nine minutes after the launch of the Chang’e-3 mission early on Monday happened in Suining county in the central province of Hunan, which has been hit by space wreckage nearly 20 times, the Xiaoxiang Morning Post said.
“Three of the roof beams have crashed down on our house, and a big hole has been punched into our barn,” one local resident told the paper.
“The huge sound scared the living daylights out of me,” said another.
A picture showed a somewhat baffled-looking villager peering at the curved shape of what appeared to be a rocket nose-cone, below a gaping hole in his roof.
Authorities gave the residents 10,800 yuan (HK$13,656) and 5,200 yuan in compensation, the paper said. No one was injured.