Saturday, March 3, 2018

Look! Up in the sky! It's Tiangong-1 heading home!

The European Space Agency (ESA) has just issued a new re-entry forecast for China's Tiangong-1 space lab.

The incredible 8.5-ton spacecraft is now expected to crash into Earth's atmosphere between March 24 and April 19, although ESA officials stressed that this is just a rough estimate.

"Re-entry will take place anywhere between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south (eg, California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri and points east)" latitude, officials with the Space Debris Office at ESA’s European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany, becoming increasingly concerned.

In this blogger's opinion, the worst case scenario would be if most of the massive structure survives reentry and then slams into someone home, basically vaporizing it instantly. Another scenario would be the 'shotgun effect' where by the vehicle breaks up shortly before impact and then take out a small city block.

Note: This vehicle will in all likelihood burn up pretty completely and any debris that may fall will more than likely fall into the ocean. The odds of someone getting hurt are about the same as winning the Power Ball Lottery twice... in a row! But, that said, if you're have a really bad day....



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