About 22 tons for 30 meters in length, practically a 10-storey building: these are the dimensions of the Chinese rocket which stands for impact on the Earth. And not just any rocket, but the Long Range 5B rocket charged with carrying Mengtian, the third and last of the modules that make up the Chinese space station Tiangong. As happened previously with China's aerospace industry, the rocket is returning uncontrollably to our planet, so let's see when and where it will land.
Upgrade 04 / 11: the rocket crashed on Earth, find all the details at the end of the article.
Another rocket from China is about to land out of control on Earth, that's where and when
Like any such case, the reentry of the Chinese Long Range 5B CZ-5B rocket will be dampened by friction with the Earth's atmosphere, from which it will come out partially destroyed. The problem will therefore not be the rocket itself, but the large debris that will be produced and which risk impacting and causing damage to things and people with a defined risk "above commonly accepted thresholds". And it is not the first time that China has been criticized, as already happened between 2020, 2021 and 2022: the rocket did not perform the standard deorbitation after the unloading of the Mengtian module, normally foreseen for this type of operations, having failed to start the motors for the controlled reentry.
Where and when will the impact be?
According to calculations made by The Aerospace Corporation, the debris from the Chinese rocket will hit the Earth between 4 and 5 November: the estimates indicate the Italian time 00:17 on 4 November, but with an estimated range of ± 10 hours. For the impact site, the geographic range is currently quite wide and covers areas where over 88% of the world population lives, Italy included.
However, such an uncontrolled reentry is hardly predictable with accuracy, and debris could end up in various parts of the globe out of control. The hope is that the atmosphere will do the most, destroying as much of the Chinese rocket debris as possible and that the remaining ones will hit remote areas and / or seas and oceans.
The rocket crashed | Update 04/11
Fortunately, it went as hoped: the Chinese Long Range 5B CZ-5B rocket crashed into Earth without causing any damage. The impact took place this morning at 11:01 am, diving in the middle of the central-southern area of thePacific Ocean. The hypothesis of impact on nations is therefore averted, including Italy which had warned citizens of regions such as Lazio, Sardinia, Molise, Puglia and Calabria.
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