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A 19.6 - ton ( 17,800 kilogram ) Chinese rocket slam dance into our planet today ( May 11 ) .
The bulky Long March 5B became the big orbiting affair to fall uncontrolled toEarthin nearly three decades , according to Jonathan McDowell , a Harvard astrophysicist and orbital objective tracker . The last sentence a heavy object had an uncontrolled entry was 1991 , when the 43 - ton ( 39,000 kg ) Salyut-7 Soviet place station reentered the atmosphere over Argentina , McDowell wrote onTwitter . ( Another competition he mentioned : the 2003 shuttle Columbia catastrophe , though that reentry did not become uncontrolled until the space bird was already in the atmosphere over Texas . )
A Chinese Aerospace Corporation image shows the Long March 5b’s launch from Wenchang launch center May 5.
In July 2019 , the Formosan space stationTiangong-2 fell in a controlled descentthrough Earth ’s atmosphere . But that 9.5 - short ton ( 8,600 kg ) crash was less than half the size of today ’s filiation , and it was direct remotely using the last of its fuel to land in a specific , remote bit of sea . In 2018 , that blank space station ’s predecessor , the 9.3 - ton ( 8,500 kg)Tiangong-1 , precipitate uncontrolled ( but harmlessly ) into the Pacific sea .
The 18th Space Control Squadron , an Air Force blank space - tracking group , report that Long March 5B reentered the ambience at 11:33 a.m. EST . At that time , it was just off the west coast of Africa , come near Nouakchott , Mauritania . In the rocket ’s last half - hour in orbit , it pass over Hollywood , Colorado Springs and New York City ’s Central Park , according to McDowell .
refer : In Photos : A face at China ’s place post that ’s crashing to Earth
" I ’ve never picture a major reentry pass directly over so many major conurbations [ metropolitan sphere ] ! " McDowelltweeted .
The projectile ’s uncontrolled reentry way was largely influence by the last few days of space weather condition , McDowell say . Particles stream from the sun can make drag and cark the path of such a fast - move piece of debris in way that make its passage unmanageable to foretell .
Originally print onLive skill .
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