Posted on 05/02/2021 4:18:01 PM PDT by bitt
Following (Thursday's) yesterday’s launch, the core stage of China’s Long March 5B rocket inadvertently went into low Earth orbit. The booster—now spinning out of control—is poised to perform an uncontrolled reentry from orbit, potentially threatening inhabited areas.
As SpaceNews reports, the core stage will likely fall from low Earth orbit at some point in the next few days, making it one of the biggest human-made objects to perform an uncontrolled reentry. The gigantic core stage, measuring 98 feet (30 meters) long and 16 feet (5 meters) wide, might burn up during atmospheric reentry, but debris could potentially reach the surface. Odds are that bits and pieces from the booster will fall into the ocean or onto uninhabited areas, but there’s a nonzero chance for it to threaten human lives and property.
Aside from this unexpected occurrence, yesterday’s launch of the Long March 5B rocket from Wenchang Launch Center was a success. It’s the first of 11 planned launches, as China begins construction of its Tianhe, or “Heavenly Harmony,” space station. The 176-foot-tall (53.7-meter) Long March 5B heavy-lift launch vehicle, with its quartet of side boosters, was specifically designed for this project. This is the latest variant of the Long March 5 rocket; an earlier version failed during launch on July 2, 2017. Completion of the new space station is expected in late 2022, after which time the orbital outpost will accommodate a crew of three.
The main stage released the 25-ton Tianhe module shortly after the eight-minute mark of the mission, but instead of falling back to Earth as planned (and onto a pre-designated area), the expendable core stage stayed in space, having achieved escape velocity. Ideally, the core stage should’ve performed a controlled deorbit shortly after its separation from Tianhe, but it’s not yet clear why this didn’t happen.
(Excerpt) Read more at gizmodo.com ...
Those will be some awesome wings! Definitely help with the shortage.
Oops, that site doesn’t recognize that designation yet.
Starlink sats are designed to do a controlled deorbit at end of life. IIRC, two or three of the 100 made uncontrolled reentries.
Heels Up!
Lets hope it makes a smooth landing in Wujan, China.
I think that all items launched into space ought to have a way to de-orbit it in a controlled way when it nears the end of it’s useful life. There are thousands of pieces of space junk because they have no method of being deorbited.
Check the starlink box at your link. Looks like skynet to me! haha.
Good lord! “We’re gonna need a bigger map!”
So what happened to the other 97 or 98?
They made controlled reentry using the deorbiting capability.
Is this it?
CZ-5B R/B
Passes right over the USA.
CZ-5B R/B
Passes right over the USA.
CZ-5B R/B
Overboost.
Does an order of Chicken Almond Gai Ding cime with it?
Ping to link at #20, good web tool to have , orbital catalogue.
Ping to link at #20, good web tool to have , orbital catalogue.
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Here’s a more targeted link:
https://orbit.ing-now.com/satellite/48275/2021-035b/cz-5b/
thanks, I’m hanging onto my hat:
* TLE Data courtesy NASA / space-track.org / CelesTrak. Satellite info data courtesy of UCS.
orbit.ing-now.com offers no guarantee whatsoever regarding the accuracy of this data. Orbital decay and reentry predictions are approximations +/- 8 hours when unassisted.
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China owns it, China should get it back.
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