OK, the China space junk is finally back safely

[Heel n Toe]

[Bill Douglas]

It would have been nice if some fighter planes shot it to bits before it touched down. In the interests of global safety and security of course. Not to annoy the Chinese.

[Heel n Toe]

I hope it didn't hit some poor guy in his fishing boat.

[The Synergizer]

Spreading a trail of COVID-21 stardust on it's way down...

[dafischer]

Chinese Rocket Breaks Apart Revealing Inspirational Fortune Inside

[GH85Carrera]

And showing once again China's total disregard of any safety in design. It is just inexcusable that in 2021 they can have a huge object like that fall on some random spot. Too bad it did not land on the Imperial Palace in China as instant karma. It could have hit almost anywhere except Antarctica.

[unclebilly]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

And showing once again China's total disregard of any safety in design. It is just inexcusable that in 2021 they can have a huge object like that fall on some random spot. Too bad it did not land on the Imperial Palace in China as instant karma. It could have hit almost anywhere except Antarctica.

It’s all noise at this point.

Let’s not forget that those bozos allowed a virus to escape from one of their labs 1.5 years ago that has affected nearly every human on the planet in some way... or does that not matter anymore, because ‘space junk’?

[GH85Carrera]

They have apartment building that have equal high quality engineering.

[Steve Carlton]

Is there technology to control the re-entry point? If that thing had landed on land, what would have been the equivalent destructive power?

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

They have apartment building that have equal high quality engineering.

The frightening thing is they have some very good military equipment. Certainly nothing like the rubbish they export.

[kach22i]

May 9, 2021
NASA criticizes China's handling of rocket re-entry as debris lands near Maldives
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/08/app-international-edition/china-space-debris-long-march-rocket-reentry-scn/index.html

The rocket, which is about 108 feet tall and weighs nearly 40,000 pounds, had launched a piece of a new Chinese space station into orbit on April 29. After its fuel was spent, the rocket had been left to hurtle through space uncontrolled until Earth's gravity dragged it back to the ground.

Generally, the international space community tries to avoid such scenarios. Most rockets used to lift satellites and other objects into space conduct more controlled reentries that aim for the ocean, or they're left in so-called "graveyard" orbits that keep them in space for decades or centuries. But the Long March rocket is designed in a way that "leaves these big stages in low orbit," said Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Astrophysics Center at Harvard University.

In this case, it was impossible to be certain exactly when or where the booster would land.

The European Space Agency had predicted a "risk zone" that encompassed "any portion of Earth's surface between about 41.5N and 41.5S latitude" — which included virtually all of the Americas south of New York, all of Africa and Australia, parts of Asia south of Japan and Europe's Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece.