When and where can it fall?

taketonews

  • At the time of takeoff, the projectile was 17.8 meters long, had a diameter of 4.2 meters and weighed about 23.3 tons.

China launched its rocket this Monday Long March 5B from the Wenchang Space Launch Center (Hainan). With this release, it shipped the lab module Mengtian to chinese space station tiangong. The Mengtian, along with the core module Tianhe and the Wentian -the other laboratory-, they already form the Tiangong space station, with a shape of the letter T after the coupling made in this last mission.

As it happened at the end of last July, now the rocket has to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere. and will this Weekendspecifically at 4:17 a.m. peninsular time on Saturday, according to calculations provided by The Aerospace Corporation. At the moment, it is unknown where this part of the rocket will fall, which at the time of takeoff measured 17.8 meters long, had a diameter of 4.2 meters and weighed about 23.3 tons.

However, the latest update from The Aerospace Corporation, made this Wednesday, suggests that the area in which it could fall is the wide central area of ​​​​the Earth, which covers practically the entire planet: from the South of Europe to Africa as a whole, passing through Australia and the entire American continent from North America to the south.

As on previous occasions, it is likely that the impact zone will not be known for a few minutes before re-entry into Earth. Objects coming from space travel at speeds of up to 28,164 kilometers per hour, which means that an error of one hour in the re-entry time translates into an error of 28,164 km in the predicted location of the accident.

Uncontrolled

This will be the fourth time a Long March 5B rocket will enter Earth in an uncontrolled manner. On all three previous occasions, debris fell on an inhabited area along the west coast of Africa; in the Indian Ocean near the Maldives; and in North Borneo. Fortunately, no one was injured or killed.

The Chinese space station, whose name means “Heavenly Palace” in Mandarin, will weigh about 70 tons and is expected to operate for about 15 years, orbiting about 400 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

Single space station?

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In 2024, it is likely to become the world’s only space station if the International Space Stationan initiative led by the United States and to which China has vetoed access due to military ties to its space program, is withdrawn that year, as planned.

In recent years, the Chinese space program has achieved successes such as landing the Chang’e 4 probe on the hidden side of the Moon – the first time it has been achieved – and reaching Mars for the first time, becoming the third country – after the United States United States and the former Soviet Union – to land.



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