Posted on 03/30/2018 6:10:07 PM PDT by InABunkerUnderSF
The Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is expected to fall to Earth around April 1st, according to the latest estimate from the European Space Agency (ESA) and Aerospace Corporation which are continuously monitoring its descent. Tiangong-1 (天宫一号, Heavenly Palace 1) is China’s first space station and an experimental space laboratory. Its major goal was to test and master technologies related to orbital rendezvous and docking. It is identified by its UN COSPAR ID 2011-053A or NORAD ID 37820.
As per Aerospace Corporation, Tiangong-1 is currently predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere around April 1st, 2018 15:15 UTC ± 11 hours.
The ESA's Space Debris Office said that the re-entry window for the Tiangong-1 space station was between March 30 and April 2 although it warned the estimate was "highly variable."
Following launch in 2011, the Tiangong-1 orbit began steadily decaying due to the faint, yet not-zero, atmospheric drag present even at 300 or 400 km altitude. This is normal and affects all satellites and spacecraft in low-Earth orbit (International Space Station is also subject to this process).
(Excerpt) Read more at n2yo.com ...
The good news is that the perigee is in the southern hemisphere, meaning it's slightly more likely to come down there.
So who’s responsible for the damages?
well that’s a relief. If it hit SFO’s Chinatown, they’d probably sue us for failing to protect them from China.
But since it’s down to below 100 miles up, can we start taking potshots at it? make great target practice...lazers away!
Sum Ting Wong Insurance Agency in Who Flung Dung, China.
Nuts!
Wanted to see it.
:o)))
The insurance company is not responsible. They just pay the claim, per the contract w their customer.
There’s some lawyer out there trying to find a way...
Its become a bit of a story here in Michigan, with the anticipation that it could come down on us.
But I should know better than to take that sensationalism seriously.
“NORAD ID 37820”
I’d like to have a NORAD ID.
Lets hope it lands on the Hogg kid!
The perigee is dropping over 100 meters per orbit now and the bad news is, it's migrated up to the equator. Saturday could be an interesting day.
http://www.aerospace.org/cords/reentry-predictions/tiangong-1-reentry/
http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=37820U
Current prediction is for reentry at around +/- 9 hours either side of 7:15am PDT on Sunday.
According to SatView, they predict reentry will be north of Australia, headed northeast.
According to USStratCom, they currently predict reentry off the west coast of South America.
They're not that great. My NORAD ID number just makes me feel fat.
Just had a perigee of 172.01 km = 106.9 miles, this was slightly higher than the the previous perigee of 171.04 km. ( based on the n2yo tracking site. )
How can this be? It is because there are two determinants. One is the orbital perigee, and the other is the latitude at which it occurs. This is because the “physical” altitude, i.e. height above the earth’s surface, is less above the equator for a circular orbit.
We are just leaving a series of “low” perigees, and the 172.01 km we just had is higher than the previous one of 171.04, purely due to the kinematics of the oblate earth.
No one talks about all this, but I guess they know it, since it looked like reentry was imminent, before this “kinematic” reprieve.
“Here’s How to Track the Chinese Space Station’s Uncontrolled Plunge to Earth”
https://www.livescience.com/62181-how-to-watch-crashing-space-station.html
I hope it lands on either the Soetero family, or on Hillary. I don’t think the station is large enough to take out Hillary and even one other thing.
I don’t think the Chinese have admitted to owning it yet...
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