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A large Chinese missile has been tasked with entering an uncontrolled entry into Earth’s atmosphere, but it is not yet known where and when the debris will hit our planet.
Chinese Long March 5B rocket “unexpectedly” retreats to ground after part of new rocket launches Chinese T-shaped space station Thursday local time in Wenchang, According to SpaceNews. The Tianhe space station unit, weighing 22.5 tons, is in proper orbit after separating from the primary phase of the rocket as planned, which is now expected to arrive in a few days or so will return a week.
“This will be one of the most significant cases of an uncontrolled re-entry of a spacecraft likely to land in a populated area,” Space News said. However, the base phase is more likely to fall in an uninhabited place, such as Earth’s oceans, which cover 70% of the planet. The likelihood of a particular individual becoming infected with space debris was once extremely low Estimated at 1 in a few trillions.
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It is difficult to map the trajectory of this falling rocket stage, if not impossible, as there are many uncertainties in the calculation of the effect of atmospheric clouds on the base unit. earth’s atmosphere It can expand or contract due to solar activity, making it difficult to estimate exactly when and where the missile will land.
“The high speed of the rocket body means it revolves around the Earth about every 90 minutes, so a return time change of just a few minutes results in a return point thousands of miles away.” Space News Adding to this that the object’s orbital tilt of 41.5 degrees means that it “goes a little further north of New York, Madrid and Beijing to southern Chile and Wellington, New Zealand, and again at any point in this region. Can enter ”.
The expected return numbers of the missile are between Many major events on wrecks In recent decades, including the Chinese space station Tiangong, Gravity Field in Europe and Stable Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE). However, most debris tends to burn in the atmosphere and only larger debris will fall to the ground. Absolute states usually do their best to direct the returned piece of debris toward Earth and provide estimates of where it might fall.
On Twitter, Harvard Space Flight Observer and Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell Expected return From the long March 5B to other major debris events, most notably the uncontrolled return of NASA’s 76-ton Skylab space station nearly 42 years ago. Ground controllers They were able to fly the space station Slightly above the expected return point across the Indian Ocean, but the debris path widened more than expected.
“To sum up, it’s bigger than anything modern, but not the size of a Skylab and the like of the day,” McDowell He said on Twitter The long March 5B is terug.
Tianhe elevation map this morning; The Tianhe Space Station remains in a 352 x 385 km orbit. The CZ-5B base stage has changed from a main runway measuring 170 x 375 km to 165 x 326 km; Shrinkage at perihelion decreases aphelion. pic.twitter.com/X0ZQIiEqUEMay 3, 2021
China plans busy construction schedule for space station, with state media reporting construction It should end at the end of 2022. Like the International Space Station, the Chinese complex will contain several units, which will require 10 additional launches: two more launches, four manned missions and four cargo flights, such as Reported by China Global Television Network (CGTN).
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