Massive 20-ton chunk from China's failed rocket that fell to Earth Monday missed hitting NYC by MINUTES

A massive chuck of China's failed rocket fell to Earth Monday, but a few minutes sooner and it would have crashed right into New York City.

Reports say that debris would have rained down on the Big Apple if the Long March 5B rocket would re-entered the atmosphere just 15 minutes earlier.

The Chinese rocket carrying an experimental craft into orbit launched on May 5 and malfunction after just a week in space, which led to the uncontrolled descend. 

The 20-ton core stage of the rocket came barreling down into Earth's atmosphere around 11am ET, moving at thousands of miles per minute.

Although most of the debris was scorched during re-entry, a bus-size piece splashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa, according to the Independent. 

Astronomers say the piece that fell was 93 feet long and weighed 20 tons – making it the most massive object to make an uncontrolled reentry from space in decades.

A large chunk landed off the coast of West Africa and smaller pieces fell a town called Cote d'Ivoire – no injuries were reported.

Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told The Independent that: 'Even in space there's a thin bit of atmosphere left.

'Objects in low orbit travel at 18000 mph, so even a tiny bit of air makes a huge headwind.'