Out-of-control Chinese space station 'will crash into Earth over weekend'

www.mirror.co.uk ^ | Updated11:05, 23 MAR 2018 | ByJeff ParsonsTech/Science reporter

[Red Badger]

The European Space Agency has revised its prediction for when free-falling Tiangong-1 will crash into Earth.

The out-of-control Chinese space station will crash down back to Earth over Easter weekend, experts have said.

According to the European Space Agency's Space Debris Office in Darmstadt, Germany, debris from Tiangong-1 will splash down between March 30 and April 2 across the northern hemisphere.

The space agency said these dates were "highly variable" and that it would be offering revised forecasts every couple of days.

"At no time will a precise time/location prediction from ESA be possible," it explained in a statement .

"This forecast was updated approximately weekly through to mid-March, and is now being updated every 1~2 days."

[Erik Latranyi]

Anything radioactive on board ?

It is Chinese....if no radioactive materials were intentionally placed on board, the metal itself is probably radioactive.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Anything radioactive on board ?

The Russians had a spy satellite come down in Canada in the 70's. Fortunately it landed in the middle of the Yukon because by all accounts it was hot as hell.

[EagleUSA]

Well, just remember.....MADE IN CHINA!!!

[nwrep]

Anyone old enough to remember Skylab?

[KarlInOhio]

South Atlantic Gravitation Abnormality?

As opposed to the Flint Michigan Gravitational Abnormality, a.k.a. Michael Moore. And Flint is at 43° north.

[killermosquito]

I remember when Skylab was coming down many years ago. It passed of US 16 times each day.

[duckworth]

Mike lindell is running three shifts at the my pillow factory. As soon as the crash site is narrowed down, the military will dump thousands and thousands of my pillows in a pile hundreds of feet high. It won’t lose its shape and the satellite will have a perfect soft landing. Seriously, mike is a genius of publicity.

[Teacher317]

It’s going to crash and most likely hit people.

Wrong. Even giving up the possibility of hitting water, the odds of randomly selecting any patch of land that has a person on it is extremely low, across the US, and across the planet. We have 2.3bn acres, and 330m people. That's 7 acres per person. A human, viewed from above, takes up about 3 square feet. Hitting a target of 3 sq ft in a field of 7 acres (300,000 sq ft) is not exactly a high probability. Things drop for the sky relatively often, but it is rare for it to ever hit a person, or even more rarely, an urban or suburban area. The US is still mostly dirt and trees.

The broken pieces of the satellite that survive the 3000 degrees for 8 minutes during re-entry will not be taking out huge swaths of land. Even centering on a small town like in the above pic, hitting a person and not a green spot is very unlikely.

[EagleUSA]

“...Anyone old enough to remember Skylab?...”

Yes, very old enough. Many memories there.

[butlerweave]

If you’re lucky enough the have it land in your yard and you survive ,you’ll be rich selling the wreckage ,LOL

[jeffc]

IS DC in that top yellow band?

Just askin'.....

[Conan the Librarian]

He is a gravity well.

[Riley]

Anyone old enough to remember Skylab?

Yep. KFRC Radio in San Francisco had a contest to predict 'where it was going to crash' in San Francisco. They didn't really mean it was going to land there, it was a guessing game to name a landmark that the staff had picked, for a prize. :-)

[Red Badger]

Barely......................

[Rebelbase]

Recall the episode of Northern Exposure where the guy gets hit by a satellite?

[Red Badger]

I remember it as well.

Watched it go over on one of its last orbits........................was in Ft. Lauderdale............

[left that other site]

Watch Out!

[Red Badger]

Flaming toilet seat?.......................

[Scott from the Left Coast]

Well, there is some hope...Washington D.C. is close to one of the yellow strips.

[bert]

San Francisco man....... if San Francisco is gone, there may be hope for California