The massive core of a Chinese rocket used last week in the launch of the first leg of its space station ambitions is whipping around Earth in a low orbit — and where it lands is anybody’s guess.
SpaceNews reported that the core of the Long March 5B will reenter the Earth sometime next week as one of the “largest instances of uncontrolled reentry of a spacecraft and could potentially land on an inhabited area.”
The website estimated that the roughly 100-foot object is orbiting Earth every 90 minutes and zips past north of New York, Beijing and as far south as New Zealand.
The report said that despite the threat it is most likely to splash in one of the world’s oceans or in an isolated area.
Jonathan McDowell, a spaceflight observer, told the website that since 1990 there have been no instances of any spacecraft over 10 tons that have “been deliberately left in orbit to reenter uncontrolled.”- READ MORE
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