William Harwood contributed to this report. Similarly, when Skylab re-entered in 1978, debris fell over Western Australia, but no injuries were reported.
When 200,000 pounds of spacecraft broke up over Texas, a significant amount of debris hit the ground, but there were no injuries. The most significant re-entry breakup over a populated area was the shuttle Columbia, which entered in February 2003. The Long March 5B rocket carrying China's Tianhe space station core module. In May of last year, another Long March-5B rocket fell into the atmosphere, ultimately landing near the west coast of Africa. The US is tracking an uncontrolled Chinese rocket traveling at 18,000 mph that is expected to crash down around May 8. In 2018, Tiangong 1, China's defunct space station, made an uncontrolled re-entry and landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. The China National Space Administration has faced issues with re-entry in the past. rockets (and most others) routinely fire their engines to target re-entries over the southern Pacific to ensure debris can't land on populated areas." "Why the Chinese rocket is coming down uncontrolled is not at all clear," said CBS News' William Harwood. Space Command's Space Track Project attempted to calm those fears, tweeting, "Everyone else following the #LongMarch5B reentry can relax. The rocket had the potential to land in the U.S., Mexico, Central America, South America, Africa, India, China or Australia - heightening anxiety around the world that it could cause damage to property or injure people.Īfter re-entry, the U.S. Last modified on Fri 05. A Long March-5B Y2 rocket carrying the core module of China's space station, Tianhe, blasts off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on April 29, 2021, in Wenchang, Hainan Province of China.Īhead of re-entry, scientists and officials were unable to give a clear prediction for re-entry. A Long March 5B rocket launches Tianhe, the core module of China's new space station, on April 28, 2021.The rocket's massive core stage fell back to Earth uncontrolled somewhere over the.
the latest example of a Chinese Long March 5B rocket booster falling to Earth. Its fast speed made its landing place nearly impossible to predict, but it had been expected to re-enter the atmosphere Saturday or Sunday. Chinas latest giant rocket debris crash blasted by US and. After the core separated from the rest of the rocket, it should have followed a predetermined flight path into the ocean.īut scientists had little idea where it would land as it orbited the planet unpredictably every 90 minutes at about 17,000 miles per hour. The 23-ton Chinese rocket Long March-5B recently launched the first module for the country's new space station into orbit. "It will hit the atmosphere, bounce around a bit and it's correct to say most of the planet is covered by water, so that's where it will likely land," he added.The remnants were left over from China's first module for its new Tianhe space station. "You have got a big lump of metal in space that's in a declining orbit because it's rubbing up against the atmosphere." "This is like playing the lottery," said Don Pollacco, a physics professor at England's University of Warwick, who tracks space debris. The risk is low but experts say the re-entry is part of a bigger problem that's only going to get worse, as countries launch more rockets that could either cause damage by crashing back to Earth - or collide and create a cloud of space debris that could imperil other satellites or astronauts. It says between 60 and 80 percent of the rocket remnant will likely burn up - but the rest will likely hit ground or water. The California-based Aerospace Corporation puts the chance of that happening at 75 percent. Meanwhile, the Chinese state-run Global Times newspaper said it would likely splash down in the sea. "The probability of causing harm to aviation activities or activities on the ground are extremely low." he said.
0 kommentar(er)
