How to Track Chinese Rocket Long March 5B That Is Falling to Earth 'Uncontrolled'

https://www.msn.com ^ | Ed Browne - Newsweek

[Red Badger]

A used Chinese rocket is currently tumbling through space and scientists do not know exactly when or where it will return to Earth—but it could be soon.

A Long March 5B rocket lifts off from the Wenchang launch site, China, May 5, 2020. A model of the rocket has de-orbited before in a way that drew criticism. The rocket, a Long March 5B, was used to place the core module of China's planned Tianhe space station into orbit on April 28.

The rocket released the module but has since been drifting around the Earth, gradually getting lower and lower. It can be tracked using services such as orbit.ing-now, which says it uses third-party data "believed to be reliable."

The rocket has been designated the name 2021-035B.

Even so, it is not possible at the moment to accurately predict when the rocket will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. This is because it is gradually being slowed by atmospheric drag, but the speed of this process can vary, SpaceNews reports.

Scientists will have a better idea of where the rocket will land as time goes on, Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, told The Guardian. He said the situation is "potentially not good" and "really negligent on China's part."

"Things more than ten tonnes, we don't let them fall out of the sky, uncontrolled, deliberately," he added.

Newsweek has contacted the Chinese government for comment.

The Long March 5B weighs around 20 tons and is roughly 100 feet long and 16 feet wide.

McDowell also posted a tweet, seen below, putting the uncontrolled de-orbit of the rocket into context of other uncontrolled de-orbits, including the much larger NASA Skylab de-orbit in 1979.

[omega4412]

If it lands in my yard

sell the pieces on eBay

[Pollard]

There ya go. And if a big enough cylinder shape is in tact, I can bury it 2/3 of the way into the ground and make a tornado shelter out of it.