A CHINESE space scientist has claimed a satellite containing sensitive intelligence information once crashed in the Australian Outback without anybody finding out.

The expert, who chose to remain unnamed, told the South China Morning Post that China would not deploy a team to salvage debris from Tiangong-1, the out-of-control space station that recently burnt up over the central South Pacific.

He said they would only do so in special circumstances, like if the asset contained “sensitive intelligence” that would “cause harm if falling into the hands of another country”.

As an example, he said a Chinese satellite containing sensitive military technology crashed in Australia shortly after its launch aboard a Long March rocket.

“Our men went in and came out quietly,” he said. “They returned with the asset in one piece.”

There were no details of when this allegedly occurred — other than “several years ago” — and he declined to provide further information, including on whether Australian authorities were even aware of it.

But there are no public reports of a crash matching this description, and several Australian space experts have cast doubt on the credibility of the scientist’s claims.

Space Industry Association of Australia chair Michael Davis told news.com.au the incident was highly unlikely to have occurred.

“I’ve never heard of it even suggested or mentioned by anyone in Australia over the last few years,” he said. “If anyone was aware of it, I’m sure we’d have known about it.

“The interesting question is — how far was this launched into space? It sounds like they’re saying it was a launch failure, but it would have to reach a fairly high altitude in order to make the parabolic flight from China to Australia. A smaller satellite would be more likely to burn up.”

He said only a very large space satellite would survive re-entry — which would make an unnoticed landing only less plausible.

“It’s most unlikely,” he said. “It does raise questions about our national security and the question of how we track objects before they hit the Earth, but I’m sure our allies would have capabilities and would be able to inform us of anything like this.”

Australian Centre for Space Engineering Research director Andrew Dempster suggested that if anything, the source may have been heavily misreporting the Skylab station.

Skylab was a US space station launched by NASA in 1973. In the early hours of July 12, 1979, Skylab crashed on Western Australia’s south east coast, scattering debris across the Nullarbor and the eastern goldfields.

“The first AUSSAT satellite was launched on a Long March and did not reach orbit,” he told news.com.au. “As far as getting the ‘asset in one piece’ after a failed launch — that is not credible.

“Also something crashing without Australian knowledge is also not credible, although there may have been a decision not to go public with that knowledge.”

News.com.au has contacted the Department of Defence for comment.

@gavindfernando | gavin.fernando@news.com.au