The Long March 5B was launched on April 29 at the Wenchang Space Launch Center in China. It's mission was to carry into orbit a module containing living quarters for a future Chinese space station.
But after completing that task, the body of the rocket is now circling Earth and will soon re-enter the lower atmosphere. The uncontrolled nature of its reentry has left experts concerned about the potential impact it could have when it lands. The large piece of space junk measures 98 feet long and 16.5 feet wide and it weighs 21 metric tons.
The federally-funded research firm The Aerospace Corporation posted a tweet late Friday saying its prediction for landing was eight hours either side of 4:19 GMT time on Sunday morning. It pinpointed an area near the north island of New Zealand as a possible reentry point, but said it could happen anywhere across large parts of the planet.that it was "common practice" across the world for the upper stages of rockets to burn up while reentering the atmosphere.
"China is following closely the upper stage's reentry into the atmosphere. To my knowledge, the upper stage of this rocket has been deactivated, which means that most of its parts will burn up upon reentry, making the likelihood of damage to aviation or ground facilities and activities extremely low," he said, according to a translation on the ministry's website.
"I think this speaks to the fact that for those of us who operate in the space domain, that there is a requirement — there should be a requirement to — to operate in a safe and — and thoughtful mode, and make sure that we take those kinds of things into — into consideration as we plan and conduct operations," he said.
And the US and UN and E U does nothing
LIVE:TRACK OUT OF CONTROL ROCKET RE-ENTRY [Chinese Long March 5B] - YouTube
How big would they be?
WTF did they launch?
Don't worry it's already comeback
Have Space X catch it
WholeMarsBlog 😬😬
So eye-opening to see how manipulative these media outlets are
I’m wearing a hard hat. 🎩
Let's get the rest of the trash out of orbit please.
I just moved to your city, who wouldn't mind showing me interesting places?
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: MSNBC - 🏆 469. / 51 Read more »
Source: YahooNews - 🏆 380. / 59 Read more »
Source: Slate - 🏆 716. / 51 Read more »
Source: NBCNews - 🏆 10. / 86 Read more »
Source: WSJ - 🏆 98. / 63 Read more »