“We expect it to reenter sometime between the eighth and 10th of May. That enormous range is, in part, a result of the rocket’s blistering speed – even slight changes in circumstance can drastically change its trajectory. The European Space Agency has predicted a “risk zone” that encompasses “any portion of Earth’s surface between about 41.5N and 41.5S latitude” – which includes virtually all of the Americas south of New York, all of Africa and Australia, parts of Asia south of Japan and Europe’s Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.Ĭhinese rocket debris is expected to crash into Earth soon. And so I would not lose one second of sleep over this on a personal threat basis,” Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Astrophysics Center at Harvard University, told CNN this week. “The risk that there will be some damage or that it would hit someone is pretty small – not negligible, it could happen – but the risk that it will hit you is incredibly tiny. The good news is that debris plunging toward Earth – while unnerving – generally poses very little threat to personal safety. The rocket’s “exact entry point into the Earth’s atmosphere” can’t be pinpointed until within hours of reentry, Howard said, but the 18th Space Control Squadron is providing daily updates on the rocket’s location through the Space Track website. The Long March 5B rocket, which is around 100 feet tall and weighs 22 tons, is expected to enter Earth’s atmosphere “around May 8,” according to a statement from Defense Department spokesperson Mike Howard, who said the US Space Command is tracking the rocket’s trajectory. Follow him on Twitter Follow us on Twitter or Facebook.A large Chinese rocket that is out of control is set to reenter Earth’s atmosphere this weekend, bringing a final wave of concern before its debris makes impact somewhere on Earth. Mike Wall is the author of " Out There " (Grand Central Publishing, 2018 illustrated by Karl Tate), a book about the search for alien life. "It is critical that China and all spacefaring nations and commercial entities act responsibly and transparently in space to ensure the safety, stability, security and long-term sustainability of outer space activities." "It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris," he added. "Spacefaring nations must minimize the risks to people and property on Earth of re-entries of space objects and maximize transparency regarding those operations," Nelson wrote in a statement posted before the rocket came down.
One such reproval came on Saturday from new NASA chief Bill Nelson. Many people in the space community have criticized China over the Long March 5B incidents, accusing the nation's space program of behaving carelessly, if not recklessly. (Sadly, the space shuttle Columbia could also be considered here the 117-ton orbiter broke apart during its reentry in February 2003, killing all seven astronauts aboard.) Those three are the 83-ton Skylab space station, which crashed over Australia in July 1979 the 50-ton upper stage of the Saturn V rocket that launched Skylab, which came down over the Atlantic Ocean west of Madeira in January 1975 and the Soviet Union's Salyut 7 space station and attached Kosmos-1686 module, which together weighed about 43 tons and re-entered over Argentina in February 1991. Only three human-made objects heavier than those two Long March 5B cores have ever fallen uncontrolled from space, according to astronomer and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who's based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The 8-ton craft fell to Earth uncontrolled in April 2018, burning up over the Pacific Ocean. In addition, China's first prototype space lab, Tiangong 1, which was designed to help pave the way for the new space station, had its own space-junk phase after completing its mission. Some large pieces of debris from that reentry apparently made it to the ground in the nation of Ivory Coast, though no injuries were reported. The same thing happened last year with a different Long March 5B core, which fell uncontrolled over the Atlantic Ocean off the West African coast. Instead of ditching safely into the ocean when its work was done, however, the rocket's first stage reached orbit, becoming a piece of space junk just waiting to crash down on its home planet after feeling enough atmospheric drag.Īnd this was not an isolated incident. The Long March 5B launched the core module for China's new space station on April 28.
For example, stated on Twitter Saturday night that the Long March "fell into the Indian Ocean north of the Maldives," an idyllic island chain off India's southwest coast. But some analysts have identified a watery grave for any rocket hunks that managed to survive the intense heat of re-entry.
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