Out-of-control Chinese rocket falling to Earth could partially survive re-entry

[Rick]

Out-of-control Chinese rocket falling to Earth could partially survive re-entry

"It's potentially not good," said Jonathan McDowell, Astrophysicist at the Astrophysics Center at Harvard University.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/04/out-of-control-chinese-rocket-tumbling-to-earth

[Rick]

Spent Chinese rocket stage set to make an uncontrolled return to Earth

The spent booster stage responsible for placing the first module of China's next space station into orbit is set to make an uncontrolled rendezvous with Earth.

The first module of Tiangong-3, "Tianhe", was launched at the end of April atop a Long March 5B rocket and is currently safely in orbit.

The same, alas, cannot be said for the Long March 5B (CZ-5B), which features a core stage and four strapped-on liquid fuelled boosters. The rocket is capable of injecting a payload directly into low Earth orbit but, unfortunately, does not appear to have much in the way of self-disposal.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/04/china_rocket_long_march/

[Carole]

Watched this last night on the live Youtube tracking site, and watched as it's elliptical orbit altitude varied and how each orbit got lower. 

But as they twice changed the estimated atmosphere entry time and it was getting on for 3.30am gave up and went to bed.

Understand it came down around that time in the Indian Ocean west of the Maldives.

Carole