A Chinese rocket is expected to re-enter our atmosphere and crash into Earth, but no one knows where.
China’s Long March 5B rocket successfully launched the Tianhe space station module on April 29, 2021.
That module will become the living quarters of the future Chinese Space Station and is currently in its correct orbit after separating from the core stage of the rocket as planned.
The core stage, however, also reached orbit, and is now on a path to be one of the largest ever pieces of debris to make an uncontrolled re-entry back into Earth’s atmosphere.
After core separation, the remaining rocket was supposed to follow a predetermined flight path to a safe re-entry and landing point in the ocean… But something went wrong.
Scientist have little or no idea where it will land as it orbits the Earth every 90 minutes at a speed of 17,000 miles per hour.
What they do know is that on every orbit, the rocket seems to tumble as it loses altitude.
Its speed is making it difficult to predict a landing area, they just know it will come down either Saturday or Sunday.
More news: https://earthsky.org/space/china-uncontrollable-long-march-5b-core-stage-hurls-towards-earth
Long March 5B falls into Indian Ocean after world follows rocket reentry – SpaceNews https://t.co/ahZQixpk4q
— TNC.Network! (@tnc_wrapup) May 9, 2021
