China’s space station launch might cost lives on the ground

bgrpro65 mai 01, 2021

You've probably seen the news this week that China successfully launched the first piece of what will become a brand new space station. The module was launched on Thursday and China used one of its powerful Long March 5B rockets to push the hardware skyward. It was a big day for China's space agency, and it got a lot of attention. Unfortunately, one of the factoids that wasn't part of the initial buzz was the fact that China has no way of controlling its rocket stage that is now orbiting Earth and slowly falling back toward the surface.

As SpaceNews reports, the core stage of the Long March 5B that sent the "Heavenly Harmony" space station module into orbit is now tumbling around our planet. The uncontrolled rocket component is absolutely huge and it won't be long before the pull of gravity becomes too much and it falls through the atmosphere back toward us. Where will the pieces land? Nobody has any idea.