A rocket falling to Earth is a possibility as Chinese module falls uncontrollably
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A Chinese rocket falling to Earth? Yes, you heard it right. But there is no need to worry. Let’s read about it in detail.
Last week, we read about the launch of the module for China’s upcoming space station, Tiangong. This module, named Tianhe, was launched on a Long March 5B rocket from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in China.
The module is now in space and working as planned. However, now a part of the rocket is falling back to Earth. Its re-entry was supposed to have been controlled but now it is not. It is one of the largest pieces of a spacecraft to fall back to Earth in an unpredictable manner. As of now, no one can tell where and when it will land.
The US government has named it 2021-035B and it is tracking the space debris (waste). The rocket piece is travelling at a speed of 27,600 km/h. A large part of it is expected to burn up on re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere. But a piece of it may still hit the ground.
The Virtual Telescope Project in Rome, Italy, will show a live video of it on 8 May 2021, from around 8 am IST. You can also track it here.
It is hoped that it will fall on an area with no people. 70% of Earth is covered by the oceans and most space debris also land up in the oceans.
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