Posted on 05/09/2020 9:56:41 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The core stage of China’s Long March 5B rocket is expected to fall back to Earth unguided after nearly a week in orbit. The Long March 5B rocket launched May 5 with a prototype for a next-generation Chinese crew capsule.
As of Saturday, the rocket stage was circling Earth in an elliptical orbit ranging between 94 miles (152 kilometers) and 167 miles (270 kilometers) in altitude, according to U.S. military tracking data. A prediction issued Saturday by the U.S. military, which tracks objects in orbit, forecasts the rocket’s re-entry in a 24-hour period between 2335 GMT (7:35 p.m. EDT) Sunday and 2335 GMT (7:35 p.m. EDT) Monday.
But uncontrolled re-entries are difficult to predict, and the forecast could change as ground-based radars continue tracking the Long March 5B rocket body in orbit. Changes in atmospheric drag and solar activity could move time of re-entry earlier or later.
A one-minute error in predicting the re-entry time changes the location of potential falling debris by nearly 300 miles, or about 500 kilometers, according to the Aerospace Corp.
The Long March 5B rocket body is in an orbit that flies between 41.1 degrees north and south latitude, meaning the re-entry could occur as far north as around New York City, or as far south as Wellington, New Zealand.
The core stage of the Long March 5B rocket measures around 100 feet (30 meters) long and 16 feet (5 meters) wide.
With the tanks empty, the Long March 5B’s core stage stage has a mass of roughly 20 metric tons.
That makes the Long March 5B core stage the most massive object to make an uncontrolled re-entry since the Soviet Union’s Salyut 7 space station in 1991...
(Excerpt) Read more at spaceflightnow.com ...
that would work.
I will most certainly be on alert for it, but who do I call if I see it coming???
And, being an un-empowered little guy...WHAT can I expect that person to do for me???
(Trying to imagine how it feels to be a snowflake)
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