KUCHING, July 31 — The Malaysian Space Agency (MYSA) has confirmed that the Chinese Long March 5B rocket debris was detected in Malaysian airspace at about 12.55am this morning.

In a statement today, MYSA said the burnt debris was recorded to have fallen at Sulu Sea.

"The rocket debris caught fire while entering the earth’s airspace and the movement of the burning debris also crossed the Malaysian airspace and was detected in several areas, including crossing the airspace around the state of Sarawak,” MYSA added.

MYSA in an earlier statement on July 29 had said China’s Long March 5B rocket debris was unlikely to land in Malaysia.

The agency had said the re-entry of the rocket remnants was expected between July 30 and Aug 1.

Rocket Long March 5B was launched from the Wenchang Spacecraft launch site, Wenchang, China on July 24 to send the 23,000kg Wentian module to the Tiangong Space Station.

Although the Long March 5B rocket was huge, MYSA had said most of the debris would be burnt during re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere with only smaller fragments landing on earth.

It also advised members of the public not to touch, move, take or destroy any object suspected to be from the re-entry incident, but to immediately contact the 999 emergency line.

"Don’t make any announcements or spread news that are false regarding the re-entry incident,” it had said on July 29. — Borneo Post