Chinese space station out of control, will crash!

[nivek]

Tiangong-1: Chinese space station will crash to Earth within months

Pieces weighing up to 100kg could make it to the surface, says expert, when out-of-control 8.5-tonne laboratory breaks apart in the atmosphere.

An 8.5-tonne Chinese space station has accelerated its out-of-control descent towards Earth and is expected to crash to the surface within a few months.

The Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace” lab was launched in 2011 and described as a “potent political symbol” of China, part of an ambitious scientific push to turn China into a space superpower.

It was used for both manned and unmanned missions and visited by China’s first female astronaut, Liu Yang, in 2012.

But in 2016, after months of speculation, Chinese officials confirmed they had lost control of the space station and it would crash to Earth in 2017 or 2018. China’s space agency has since notified the UN that it expects Tiangong-1 to come down between October 2017 and April 2018.

Since then the station’s orbit has been steadily decaying. In recent weeks it has dipped into more dense reaches of Earth’s atmosphere and started falling faster.

“Now that [its] perigee is below 300km and it is in denser atmosphere, the rate of decay is getting higher,” said Jonathan McDowell, a renowned astrophysicist from Harvard University and a space industry enthusiast.

“I expect it will come down a few months from now – late 2017 or early 2018.”

 

[Castle-Yankee54]

Should be interesting....hope no one gets hurt.

 

[dr wu]

That's over 200 lbs...Did they say where......one might want to take out insurance against satellite damage.

 

[August]

Hope it doesn't have any Nuclear fuel on-board.

 

[nivek]

Hope it doesn't have any Nuclear fuel on-board.

That could be a problem, I've read nothing about the power supply that station uses, could be solar? or nuclear?...

 

[August]

Years ago Skylab crash landed in Western Australia . Luckily the area was unpopulated.

 

[Toroid]

The Tiangong-1 is carrying the dangerous substance hydrazine that's used in rocket fuel. It could fall to Earth in March.
Experts warn over highly toxic chemical aboard Tiangong-1 | Daily Mail Online

A 'highly-toxic' corrosive chemical could land on Earth in March when parts of an out-of-control Chinese space station crash into our planet.

The chemical, called hydrazine, is used in rocket fuel and long-term exposure is believed to cause cancer in humans.

It is being carried aboard the Tiangong-1 space station which is hurtling towards Earth and due to hit in March.

While most of it will burn up during rentry, around 10 to 40 per cent of the satellite is expected to survive as debris, and some parts may contain hydrazine.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5228009/Experts-warn-highly-toxic-chemical-aboard-Tiangong-1.html#ixz331ydWIN
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While a precise landing location remains unclear, ESA has provided the latitudes between which Tiangong-1 is likely to land – and countries at risk include Spain, Italy, Turkey, India and parts of the US. ESA says no fragments will fall higher than 43°N or further south than 43°S

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-5228009/Experts-warn-highly-toxic-chemical-aboard-Tiangong-1.html#ixz332P2mRL
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[CasualBystander]

Years ago Skylab crash landed in Western Australia . Luckily the area was unpopulated.

We've covered this before.

Alice Springs should be the designated landing site for all space debris and meteors.

 

[nivek]

The Tiangong-1 is carrying the dangerous substance hydrazine that's used in rocket fuel. It could fall to Earth in March.
Experts warn over highly toxic chemical aboard Tiangong-1 | Daily Mail Online

Hydrazine is very useful to modern society, there's many applications and uses for it but it also has an extremely explosive nature...It wrecks the central nervous system of humans if exposed in deadly levels but saves lives through its use in vehicle airbags...

Still, depending on the quality dropping out of orbit, most if not all of it should explode upon reentry...

 

[CasualBystander]

Hydrazine is very useful to modern society, there's many applications and uses for it but it also has an extremely explosive nature...It wrecks the central nervous system of humans if exposed in deadly levels but saves lives through its use in vehicle airbags...

Still, depending on the quality dropping out of orbit, most if not all of it should explode upon reentry...

An unstable compound is going to have a short half-life.

Since exposure levels have to be in the PPM range or above, unless you are hit by the debris there isn't a lot of risk.

If you are conked by incoming spacecraft parts, the hydrazine probably won't be your first concern.

 

[humanoidlord]

already happened before at least 2 times (not counting the fallout of an possible secret paralell USAF space program using the "cancelled" x-20 dyna-soar and the the small space lab [MOL] concept)

 

[SOUL-DRIFTER]

Kim's bungalow in North Korea would be a great place for it to hit.