Comparing
India and China is commonplace. But comparisons can often be odious. The social media post of the Chinese Communist
Party comparing Indian funeral pyres with the images of its Long March 5B
rocket’s launch was unabashed shame. The extremely distasteful caption of the
post on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, read: “China lighting a fire
versus India lighting a fire.” .. .. then there is ‘Karma’ – what goes up !
comes cracking down !!!
Decades ago in
1979 – rumours ran so high that most people in globe feared a mighty fall from
the sky a la Chicken do little – across India, especially Andhrapradesh, fear
was high as according to some reports that object from the sky could hurtle in
Karimnagar. Some of them hid their wealth
in the wells and some spent all the money they had saved for their enjoyment
since they feared that lives would come to an end soon. Reportedly some sold
their property and cattle at low prices ! – eventually some pieces were
scattered across Australia, but no one on the ground was hit and no property
damage was reported.
2020 was all
about the Corona virus that emanated from China – WHO ensured that it was named
Covid 19 with no reflection of its origin but the variants could have the name
as British, Indian, South African .. .. et.al. .. now amidst the strong 2nd
wave there is another fear – that of a large Chinese rocket stage reentering
Earth’s atmosphere in the coming days and the potential impact of the falling
debris. !!
The Long
March 5B successfully launched a 22.5-metric-ton core module of China’s first
space station last week. During the launch, the first stage of the Long March
5B also reached orbital velocity instead of falling downrange as is common
practice. That placed the empty rocket body in an elliptical orbit around Earth
where it is being dragged toward an uncontrolled reentry in the coming days. [very clearly a failed launch but no one is talking about that !] The
rocket stage’s orbital inclination of 41.5 degrees means that reentry can be as
far north as Chicago, New York City, Rome and Beijing and as far south as New
Zealand and Chile. That places any of the locations within the potential
reentry path of this giant piece of space junk measuring 98 feet long by 16.5
feet wide and weighing 21 metric tons.
Space debris (also known as space junk, space garbage) is defunct human-made objects
in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function.
These include derelict spacecraft—nonfunctional spacecraft and abandoned launch
vehicle stages—mission-related debris, and particularly numerous in Earth
orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and
spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-built objects left in orbit, other
examples of space debris include fragments from their disintegration, erosion
and collisions. The fact
is that such space debris can fall on you and the threat is this space junk
measures 98 feet long by 16.5 feet wide and weighing 21 metric tons. .. .. and that can cause colossal
damage! The innate fears that it
creates in mankind (already frightened by Covid) is :
1) can it
cause physical harm meaning will it kill people
2) will it
damage my property – in which case will my Property insurance come to my rescue
!
If you know Insurance and have taken a Property policy covering
your assets (house property) – the coverage would be provided as per the Standard Fire and Special Perils
Policy (Material damage) which came into effect from April 2003. These are annual policies and you will have
to check when you paid premium last – if the cover is in force – the Fire
Policy as it is called covers specified 12 perils from Fire / riots / floods /
storm and without elaborating names ‘Aircraft damage’ too. The standard definition of coverage here
would be ‘fire and other damage caused to the property insured caused directly by aircraft or any aerial device,
(would damage caused by their falling) however,
damages due to pressure waves caused by aircraft traveling at supersonic
speed are taken out from the policy,
Whether Insurers would indemnify such losses or would interpret that
spacecrafts and articles falling from space are not intended to be covered –
there cannot be a straight and definitive answer. Interestingly effective 1st Apr
2021, Indian market has ‘Bharat Griha Raksha’ replacing Standard fire &
special perils policy !
The introductory definition of this policy reads that ‘ the
policy offers cover against a wide range of perils, namely Fire, Natural
Catastrophes (Storm, Cyclone, Typhoon, Tempest, Hurricane, Tornado, Tsunami,
Flood, Inundation, Earthquake, Subsidence, Landslide, Rockslide), Forest,
Jungle and Bush fires, Impact Damage of any kind, Riot, Strike, Malicious
Damages, Acts of terrorism, Bursting and overflowing of water tanks, apparatus
and pipes, Leakage from automatic sprinkler installations and Theft within 7
days from the occurrence of any of the aforesaid events. .. .. ‘aircraft damage’ does not appear here
but the definition of Impact damage reads
: Impact damage of any kind,
i.e., damage caused by impact of, or collision caused by any external physical
object (e.g. vehicle, falling trees, aircraft, wall etc.) .. this could put the cause
squarely within the parameters of coverage is a solace.
Then comes a larger Q – whether there would be liability for
China to any party be it an individual or Nation for the damages caused arising
out of falling rocket launched by it and whether Insurance coverage exists for
such liability !!
Satellite Insurance would be an elitist subject unlikely to be understood by lesser mortals. It was reported in 2019 that Space rockets and satellites are likely to cost more to insure after the European Vega rocket crash which hit insurers with a record space market loss of 369 million euros ($411.21 million), insurance industry sources stated. The Vega rocket carrying a military observation satellite for the United Arab Emirates veered off course shortly after take-off and crashed. Prior to the accident, Italian aerospace company Avio Aero AVI.MI, which built the Vega, said it had a 100% success rate.
The insurance loss for the rocket and satellite represented the
largest recorded loss in the space market, it was reported. Till such instance,
insurance premiums for commercial satellite and rocket accidents had been falling due to strong competition among
insurers and improved rocket reliability. Vega crash, changed that course leading to higher costs for space rocket
launches.
Besides the gargantuan costs of the Satellites and its launches,
there is aspect of probably liability out of its falling and causing damages. The issue of liability is framed by the general
framework developed at the international level by means, principally, of
Article VII of the Outer Space Treaty and the Liability Convention. The starting point in this respect is the
principled allocation of liability for damage caused by a space object to the
“launching State” or “launching States” of that space object. Article II of the
Liability Convention provides in this respect: “A launching State shall be
absolutely liable to pay compensation for damage caused by its space object on
the surface of the Earth or to aircraft in flight,” whereas Article III along the same lines
provides: “In the event of damage being caused elsewhere than on the surface of
the Earth to a space object of one launching State or to persons or property on
board such a space object by a space object of another launching State, the
latter shall be liable only if the damage is due to its fault or the fault of
persons for whom it is responsible.”
The Liability Convention defines the “launching State” for the
purposes of these clauses as: “(i) A State which launches or procures the
launching of a space object; (ii) A State from whose territory or facility a
space object is launched.” The fact that
this definition may result in several states being liable for the same
damage-causing event—a space object may be launched by one state on behalf of
another, which thus has “procured” the launch in question —does not take away
any liability but merely results in liability being joint and several.
The Liability Convention was considered and negotiated by the
Legal subcommittee from 1963 to 1972. Agreement was reached in the General
Assembly in 1971 and the Convention entered into force in September 1972.
Elaborating on Article 7 of the Outer Space Treaty, the Liability Convention
provides that a launching State shall be absolutely liable to pay compensation
for damage caused by its space objects on the surface of the Earth or to
aircraft, and liable for damage due to its faults in space. The Convention also
provides for procedures for the settlement of claims for damages. The Convention on International Liability for
Damage Caused by Space Objects, also known as the Space Liability Convention,
is a treaty from 1972 that expands on the liability rules created in the Outer
Space Treaty of 1967. In 1978, the crash of the nuclear-powered Soviet
satellite Kosmos 954 in Canadian territory led to the only claim filed under
the Convention.
Before concluding the odious comparison of the social media post
comparing Indian funeral pyres with Long March 5B rocket launch fire, the biggest blowback came from the Chinese
public, who derided the post by the CCP’s Central Political and Legal Affairs
Commission, or Zhongyang Zhengfawei, as “inappropriate”, and called for a
nationwide expression of sympathy for India, in line with President Xi
Jinping’s own remarks a day earlier. The original post was subsequently
deleted, surviving only in screenshots circulated across Weibo and global
social media platforms. But karma can be quite a leveller. Because the story
doesn’t end here. The international media’s focus has shifted from the
Zhongyang Zhengfawei’s social media faux pas to that Long March 5B rocket
featured in the post. No matter what
becomes of China’s space debris, this turn of event makes the timing and nature
of that Sina Weibo post doubly unfortunate, and represents egg on the face of
Guo Shengkun, a prominent CCP official and head of Zhongyang Zhengfawei.
But knowing China well, it is has perhaps planted sleeper cells so
well that such incidents will not mar its reputation nor prevent their
recurrence ! Sad ! – the immediate solace is that according to present reports
‘India reportedly is off the radar of the falling debris’
With regards – S. Sampathkumar
7th May 2021.
