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Calista241

(5,584 posts)
Tue May 12, 2020, 08:07 PM May 2020

Hunk of Chinese Rocket Falls to Earth as Uncontrolled Space Debris

Source: Gizmodo

A large, out-of-control piece of space debris crashed into the Atlantic Ocean yesterday, passing over much of the United States.

China launched the the Long March 5B rocket on May 5 from the Wenchang launch site in order to deploy a test model of its upcoming crew capsule. After a week in orbit, the nearly 18-metric-ton core stage re-entered the atmosphere and crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, becoming the largest piece of uncontrolled space debris to re-enter the atmosphere since 1991, as Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Jonathan McDowell noted on Twitter.

After the launch, the rocket began a week-long orbit. The U.S. military soon started tracking the rocket’s core stage. After a trajectory that took it over heavily populated areas such as New York and Los Angeles, the rocket hit the ocean off the coast of West Africa. Uncontrolled reentries and eventual crash sites are difficult to model, since scientists don’t fully understand the complex dynamics of the upper atmosphere, Holger Krag, head of ESA’s Space Debris Office, said in a 2018 statement. Such debris can travel vast distances in short stretches of time.

The 176-foot Long March 5B rocket is designed to bring large payloads, like components of China’s upcoming space station, into orbit. This mission deployed a prototype crew capsule that would be used to bring astronauts into orbit, as well as an experimental cargo return capsule, which malfunctioned as it returned into the atmosphere, reports Spaceflight Now.

Read more: https://gizmodo.com/hunk-of-chinese-rocket-falls-to-earth-as-uncontrolled-s-1843418082

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Hunk of Chinese Rocket Falls to Earth as Uncontrolled Space Debris (Original Post) Calista241 May 2020 OP
Where is Space Force SoCalNative May 2020 #1
You mean Space Farce. sakabatou May 2020 #2
They're sidelined until not fooled May 2020 #3
It is still trying to find someone who knows what their mission is. LogicFirst May 2020 #4
Here (in verse 2) DFW May 2020 #5
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