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 ...
She’s going in, decending now:
https://in-the-sky.org/satmap_worldmap.php
entering “CZ-5B R/B”
Projected impact Shows entry into South Indian Ocean.
Fred Nerks is the closest.
Cool. Thanks!
The booster must have skipped up again, they showed a decsent
trajectory of the South Indian Ocean but how its regained altitude from 146 km back up to 328 km now just 100o miles off the East coast of Japan.
We have a skipper. If it goes down on the next low in its orbit, it will be a lot closer to Australia.
Look out Fred!
https://in-the-sky.org/satmap_worldmap.php
search Entry: CZ-5B R/B
Its actual altitude goes from high to low and then back each orbit.
100 foot tall Rooster!
Coffee???
You need to cut back on the shrooms man!
Come to think of it, there are shrooms in my open-faced roast beef and gravy sandwich. But they looked like shitakes...
Yes. I am familiar with pyrigee and apogee.
The page had a graphic with a wide red band indicating a descent. But it skipped back up.
I’d say its traveling quite fast, maybe 30K mph plus.
Maybe it will co in on its next pyrigee close approach. It should be spectacular when it does go in.
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