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Chinese Satellite Crashes Into House

Posted by timothy on from the in-china-no-less dept.

toggleflipflop writes "In China, a returning satellite crashed into a house. No one was hurt. More details in this article. Apparently inhabited by an eternal optimist: 'The satellite landed in our home. Maybe this means we'll have good luck this year,' the tenant of the wrecked apartment was quoted as saying by the newspaper. According to the People's Daily's article on the subject nothing seems to have gone wrong."

57 of 406 comments (clear)

  1. First Image by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Here's a picture.

    1. Re:First Image by I_Love_Pocky! · · Score: 4, Insightful

      As opposed to the corporate-run media in the US? You should never trust any media outlet completely.

    2. Re:First Image by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Notice that it took that website 2 days after the "landing" to acknowledge that the thing hit a house. This is the news from 2 days ago from that same site:

      Beijing, Oct. 15 (Xinhuanet) -- China has successfully retrieved its 20th recoverable satellite for scientific and technological experiments. The satellite's information capsule returned to earth Friday.

      Link here.

    3. Re:First Image by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And how that is different from the american media reporting what the WhiteHouse tells them?

      they probably just reported what the government said, before finding out that something else had happened

    4. Re:First Image by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Informative

      Good point. Like the pictures of abused prisoners in Iraq. They've been around the rest of the world for a year before they finally surfaced in the US. Compared to that, a two day cover up in china isn't scary.

      Unless you're talking about the abuses perpetrated by Saddam Hussein at Abu Ghraib before the US occupation, you're manufacturing facts.

      The prison abuse scandal broke in late April 2004 when CBS 60 Minutes II aired several photos showing abuse against US-held prisoners at Abu Ghraib. One year before that, April 2003, US forces were still in the process of securing the bulk of Iraq from whatever parts of the Baathist regime were still fighting at the time. Abu Ghraib and the other prison camps were not fully in place until late 2003, and the reports of prisoner abuse spanned the period from October to December 2003.

      Amnesty International did request that an independent investigation be put in place as early as June 2003. They objected to the general conditions of the prison camps, but did not make accusations of violent torture at that time. However, even Cooperative Research notes that photos and other evidence of the abuses at Abu Ghraib were not leaked to the military until January 2004 and to the media in April 2004.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Ghraib_prisoner_a buse

      There is also no reason to believe that CBS would wait for months to break this story, as just a few months later they hastily broke another anti-Administration story that turned out to be false.

    5. Re:First Image by jav1231 · · Score: 3, Funny

      When have they? You smoke to much crack...or not enough. I'm not sure which it is with you, but you don't smoke the right amount.

    6. Re:First Image by Dachannien · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The valid point, as has been made many times, is that there is little investigative journalism in the US media.

      I'll agree with that statement. Even the CBS Bush document fiasco was the result of CBS journalists being fed information rather than digging up facts for themselves.

      Well.... aside from at the local level, and that usually consists of "investigative journalists" harassing and trespassing on the property of some city councillor who was recently arrested for DUI.

      Although I am sure we all agree wikipedia is the authoritative and infallible new source,

      In the specific case I linked to in my previous post, the Abu Ghraib article was extensive and cited numerous other independent sources. It may not be infallible, but it's certainly as authoritative as any of the sources it cites.

      Besides, blog journalism (or distributed or peer-to-peer journalism, if you prefer) is a new driving force in today's media, and it stands to change the way that journalism and politics in the US work between now and the 2008 election. Wikipedia is an extension of that concept.

    7. Re:First Image by 808140 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Your example would unfortunately prove nothing, because unless I were a widespread organizer, the government would rightly see me as mostly non-threatening. It is entirely possible that if I were obnoxious about it, I might be asked not to wear it by someone in a position of authority. If I refused, I would probably unceremoniously be asked to leave the country, as I am not Chinese.

      But your point in a certain sense is well taken, because obviously, the USA is a nominally free society whereas the PRC makes no claims of being one. No one in their right mind would literally mean that the governments of the PRC and the USA are similarly repressive; but then that's why my comparison was prefaced with a modifying "sometimes".

      In the same way that the slogan, "The USA: better than North Korea" has no substantial value, comparing the state of civic liberties in the PRC to the USA and using the USA's better track record as an indication of superiority is a useless exercise. Of course the USA is better than the PRC where personal freedoms are concerned. This goes without saying.

      What is productive is the same comparison made in the other direction. If the PRC fails to meet the USA's standards, no one is surprised; it is when the USA is either the same or inferior to a country like the PRC that we need to begin worrying.

      Comparisons of the USA's current state of civic freedoms to the PRC, the DPRK, or Mussolini's Italy are all hyperbole and should be treated as such. The purpose of such comparisons is to underscore the inadvisability of taking such reforms to extremes. Our current erosion of the civil liberties, for example, smacks of totalitarianism. To illustrate the point, I might say that the USA's current standards of something or other are equivalent to the PRC's -- this is meant to alarm you, not instigate a "but the PRC is worse than we are in terms of x, y, and z."

      In summary, my point was that the original poster's retort (which essentially was, "The USA is better than the PRC because we don't roll tanks over students") was an oversimplified, propaganda-worthy comparison. It was one of those facile categorizations like, "You're either with us or with the terrorists", or "Things are either good or evil, black or white".

      This kind of on/off true/false binary logic demonstratably fails with most real world concepts.

      While the Tiananmen square massacre was lamentable, to simply state the USA is better because we have not similarly silenced protesting students is overlooking the huge number of horrible things we have done.

      The PRC has many flaws; no one I know denies this -- even the Chinese. But Americans for some reason are wont to deny their own country's significant blunders.

      To much of the rest of the world, China did not invade Iraq, or destabilize the entire continent of Latin America for their personal gain, or fight largely hopeless proxy battles with the former USSR in order to stop the spread of communism, because after all, we can't have vassal states choosing their own leaders or system of government. Free elections were never held in South Vietnam because of overwhelming popular support for Ho Chi Minh, etc. We face the same problem now in Iraq -- sure, we can have democracy, but what kind of leaders will the Iraqis elect? Most likely an Islamofacist one.

      China's great flaws are these: a poor human rights record and a lack of personal freedoms. Of course, the nation griping the most loudly about the former is one of the few in the developed world that still executes inmates on a regular basis, and is also the one that was responsible for use of torture in Iraq. We may not be in the same league as China in this regard, but to much of the rest of the world, we are seen as a bully criticizing another bully for similar actions.

      Regarding its lack of personal freedoms: this mostly means that political speech is not universally protected. Otherwise, you are welcome to sa

  2. Nothing wrong? by octal666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are they meaning the house-crashing was on schedule?

    --
    DON'T PANIC
    1. Re:Nothing wrong? by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Funny

      no, it's just chinaspeak for "our lives are ruined and the party won't pay us a dime".

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  3. next year by morcheeba · · Score: 5, Funny

    Boy, is that guy going to be disappointed next year when a satellite doesn't crash into his house. Bad luck all year!

    --
    HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
    1. Re:next year by kingkade · · Score: 3, Funny

      When the guy was saying everything was OK and generally being all happy-go-lucky about it, you could probably notice there was a red laser beam aimed at his temple. 'You used to be cool China, what happened?'

      --
      why run from Vincenzo?
  4. No thanks. by wankledot · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Someone once told me that being shit on by a bird was good luck to the Italians... I guess this is like that to the nth degree

    Personally, I'd rather have bad luck and no bird shit on my head (or satellites in my house)

    --
    My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
    1. Re:No thanks. by Zardus · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't particularly mind satellites, as long as they come in through the front door, whipe their feet on the welcome mat, and politely drink their tea. Its the kind that crash through your roof or window that I can't stand. They're just plain rude.

      --
      You can mod your friends, you can mod your nose, but you can't mod your friend's nose.
    2. Re:No thanks. by JasontheMason · · Score: 5, Funny
      Personally, I'd rather have bad luck and no bird shit on my head (or satellites in my house)

      So, what if the bad luck was something like, um, a satellite falling through your roof?

      JtM

      --
      "Ad infinitem et ultra!" - Buzz Lightyear
    3. Re:No thanks. by jelle · · Score: 4, Informative

      Not so much 'good luck', but in the spirit of karma, yin/yang, or for engineers 'laws of constant misery', getting hit like that tips the scale such toward the bad-luck extreme that after that you are due a lot of luck to get back to 'normal'.

      --
      --- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
    4. Re:No thanks. by glk572 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The real question is wether you would rather be shat on by a bird or have a satellite fall through your roof; I would prefer the satellite, It would be worth it just for the story, especially if you rent.

      --
      Well art is art isn't it, but then again water is water; and east is east; and west is west; and if you take cranberries
    5. Re:No thanks. by kd5ujz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      We are talking about luck, not statistics. A coin coming up heads or tails is one thing, you know if its heads or tails. A satellite crashing through your roof is another. It could have been bad, but hell, in the US people would be writing up long lists of shit they did not have. "Um, that laptop was a panasonic tough book" when the damn thing was a $699 dell special. Hell, it could have killed a burgler. Common sense tells us its a bad thing, but it might be good. The GOV might finaly replace the damn leaky toilet, and the guy will definatly have a new roof.

      --
      -William
      God is everything science has yet to explain.
  5. So.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Do they get to keep the satellite ??

    Finders Keepers..
    Loosers Weepers..

    1. Re:So.. by wicka_wicka · · Score: 5, Funny

      I don't think that's communist policy. Losers keepers. Finders stabbed in the face.

      --
      hi
  6. I don't understand by elid · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "The returning capsule only went through the roof and no one was injured or died. Experts who inspected the return capsule found it was not damaged at all," the report said, quoting local official Ai Yuqing.

    "The landing technology of our country's satellites is very mature and the precision of the landing point is among the best in the world. Members of the public need not worry about this," it also said, quoting Chinese space experts.

    Someone please explain this to me. Did they plan on crashing the thing into this guy's roof?

    1. Re:I don't understand by Microlith · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Knowing how deeply the government of China truly cares for its people, I imagine it was more a case of "his house was in our target landing zone" as opposed to "we missed our target landing zone and hit his house."

    2. Re:I don't understand by morcheeba · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, of course they didn't plan on landing it on this guy's roof. Check out the picture -- they were obviously aiming for the courtyard, and, if you ask me, they did a really good job of getting pretty close.

      --
      HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
    3. Re:I don't understand by morcheeba · · Score: 5, Interesting
      That does bring up an interesting question... why did the chinese satellite survive and Genesis was in pieces.

      The main reason would that the Chinese parachute worked while the Genesis failed.

      The other reason would be a weight budget -- the Genesis mission travelled much further, so the energy (and cost) to propel any additional weight would be much more than for the Chinese mission. Thus, it probably wasn't overbuilt.

      The third reason is the mission. The Genesis mission had to open up to expose its collectors, while the chinese mission is a bit unknown. If it was a zero gravity research, its experiments probably didn't need exposure to space. If it produced a massive amount of data that couldn't be transmitted back, the data storage is usually easy to separate from the instruments (including film & camera). Anyone know what it was supposed to do?

      --
      HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
    4. Re:I don't understand by afidel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Wtf would the landing zone be ANYWHERE near an occupied area? They have this huge basically uninhabited area called the Gobi Desert to land big space probes in with a statistically zero chance of hitting anything. Instead they land it in the middle of one of the more populated parts of the country? That makes zero sense to me.

      --
      There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
    5. Re:I don't understand by RALE007 · · Score: 4, Funny
      Someone please explain this to me. Did they plan on crashing the thing into this guy's roof?

      Yes, that was the exact purpose of the mission. You see the guy had been evading taxes, and well, the Chinese can be known to go a bit overboard when making a point. It was a two part mission really, to show how precisely they can land their satellites, and to remind the population that they had better pay their f*&#ing taxes. Any other bright questions you need answers to?

      --
      Beware blue cats moving at .99c
    6. Re:I don't understand by rts008 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Don't blame them, I wouldn't want to go into the desert either. This way it's easy to locate!

      --
      Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
  7. it could get worse... by selderrr · · Score: 5, Funny

    in belgium, some 10 years ago, a russian Mig bonkered into a house after the pilot did an emergency jump out some 5000km away above russian territory... Imagine sitting at the table and all of a sudden a warhead plops on your plate. not to mention the secret service eating your guts out 20mins later.

    I'm too lazy, otherwise I would google some info about it. No doubt soe karma whore will do it below

    --
    When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
    1. Re:it could get worse... by IWK · · Score: 4, Informative

      ...who ordered the whore?...

      --
      Once in a while, I even pass the Turing-Test
    2. Re:it could get worse... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Posted anon to avoid the karma:

      "The strange accident of the MiG-23

      04 July, 1989.

      From the Soviet airbase near Kolobzreg at the seashore of the Baltic Sea in Poland a MiG-23 took off for a training flight. After the take off the pilot, Colonel Skurigin realised that the afterburner of his plane stopped and the power of the engine begun to fall. The altitude at this time was about 130-150 m and the pilot believed that the descending aircraft is unable to fly any longer. Without turning the engine off the pilot ejected and landed safely with his parachute. To the great astonishment of the ground crew the position of the plane fixed and it flew away to the West. The autopilot kept the last direction of the plane. The aircraft was not armed but the ammunition for the 23 mm machine gun was onboard. The phantom plane left the airspace of the former East Germany and violated the West German airspace where it was intercepted and escorted a pair of American F-15s. As the F-15s didn't get permission to fire they let the aircraft flew away. France also alerted its Mirage fighters being in readiness with permission to fire if the phantom plane was dangerous for French built-up areas. Eventually it was unnecessary because after some 900 km the MiG-23 ran out of fuel and crashed in the area of Kortrijk city in Belgium ( NW of Belgium ). A house was ruined due to the crash and a 18 years old young man was buried under the ruins and died."

  8. Definitely insured by travdaddy · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently inhabited by an eternal optimist: 'The satellite landed in our home. Maybe this means we'll have good luck this year.'

    Hmm, must have had good insurance... and a crappy house.

    --
    Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
  9. The roof is on fire! by Kenshin · · Score: 5, Funny

    We don't need no water, let the motherf***er burn!

    Burn, motherf***er, burn!

    --

    Does it make you happy you're so strange?

  10. I wonder... by FiReaNGeL · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I wonder if China is deliberately crashing its satellites on its territory for secrecy reasons... maybe it was a spy satellite or something?

    Seriously, given China size, they should have been able to find a decent landing spot... it isn't THAT densely populated is it?

    --
    Eureka Science News - automatically updated
    1. Re:I wonder... by pe1chl · · Score: 4, Interesting

      About 5 times more densely than the USA, and 15 times more densely than Russia.
      Maybe that explains it?

  11. The chinese sure are optimists by kuzb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Only in China would someone take a large hunk of metal destroying their home as a sign of good luck. The rest of us would probably be thinking that some higher power hates us.

    --
    BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
  12. Misleading summary (surprise surprise) by psoriac · · Score: 3, Informative

    In case anyone else interpreted the summary as saying that nothing went wrong with the deorbiting of the satellite, I'd like to point out that the second article only says that nothing went wrong during the mission. It makes no mention of the crash.

    Regardless, China probably figures that deorbiting satellites into sparsely populated areas is perfectly safe because really, if it takes out a family or two, well, there's more where they came from. (Note to angry reactionists: I'm Chinese.)

    --
    I browse Slashdot at +3, Funny
    1. Re:Misleading summary (surprise surprise) by Detritus · · Score: 5, Informative

      On 1996-02-15, a failed launch dropped a Long March 3B rocket on villages surrounding the Xichang space center. Unofficial reports put the damage and death toll much higher than figures (6 dead, 57 injured) reported by government news agencies. The concept of range safety seems to have been foreign to the Chinese space agency.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  13. In Communist China..... by reality-bytes · · Score: 5, Funny


    In Communist China the satellite lands on you!

    .....oh wait

    --
    Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
  14. Subcontracted... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Must of subcontracted to the same guys who outsourced parts for Genesis.

    Chinese Contractor: Here! We have parts left over from american space craft!
    Chinese Space Agency: Well, don't just stand there, send them to us!

    [3 Years Later]

    Genesis: The ground sure is coming up fast! I wonder why my chutes have gon.... GAK!

    [2 Month Later]

    Chinese Space Craft: The ground sure is coming up fast! I wonder why my chutes have gon.... GAK!

  15. Of course it was a spy satellite! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    China's spy satellites still use film. They deorbit them in order to retrieve the images.

  16. Eternal optimist? Nah. by sssmashy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    'The satellite landed in our home. Maybe this means we'll have good luck this year.

    Eternal optimist? I doubt it. I'm sure the villager bit his tongue, and wisely refrained from voicing his true opinion.

    It's all relative. A broken roof is a minor inconvenience compared to ten years in prison for criticizing the government.

    1. Re:Eternal optimist? Nah. by NanoGator · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "It's all relative. A broken roof is a minor inconvenience compared to ten years in prison for criticizing the government."

      Or maybe he was just thinking "What are the odds of me having something happen that's WORSE that my house being destroyed by a satellite this year?"

      --
      "Derp de derp."
  17. Learn more in JSR's space report by Lord+Satri · · Score: 4, Informative

    This page is one place to learn more. It's Jonathan's Space Report, a reference monthly newsletter from a guy working at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

    It tells us FSW 20 - The FSW recoverable satellite launched by China on Sep 27 returned to Earth at 0248 UTC on Oct 15, falling through the roof of a house in the village of Penglai, Sichuan province

    --
    Animoog.org
  18. Loony Toons.. by Mastadex · · Score: 5, Funny

    Are we sure this guy didnt have a really big high powered ACME magnet pointed straight up??

    --
    A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
  19. Now thats what I call DirecTV! by XeXeN · · Score: 4, Funny

    Is that their new dedicated subscription?

  20. Re:You believe what you read? by kingkade · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I think that if this happened in the US, the guy would be on MSNBC. And probably put the fucking thing on ebay. Maybe suing the government for rights to it since it landed on his property and maybe even suing them for tresspassing. All the while, Johnny Cochran is speaking at a press conference for him saying something clever. All this commotion would, of course, ensure his 15 minutes and his appearance on Larry King promoting his new book, When Satellites Attack. Maybe even a movie's in the works. Somthing to think about.

    --
    why run from Vincenzo?
  21. Ohhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    So thats why the box at the end of my dish is called a satellite receiver...

  22. returning to earth....... by bendsley · · Score: 3, Funny

    i guess the chinese didn't want to be outdone by the US crashing a probe into the Nevada desert.

    --
    Alcohol & calculus don't mix. Never drink & derive.
  23. Not just the chinese by ssand · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's not just the chinese Space agency. If you look at nasa, and other space angencies, all have been riddled by some sort of issue, many of them similar, such as the incident with one of the mars rover, the space dust from the sun that failed to deploy its parachutes, or when one of Nasa's ships was unfortunately destroyed upon reentry.

  24. Re:Crappy Chinese-made products by jrockway · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The iPod is made in China. I think it's not a matter of it being Chinese so much as it being cheap. You buy cheap stuff, you get cheap stuff. That's how life works. :)

    --
    My other car is first.
  25. Obviously, by quarkscat · · Score: 5, Funny

    the crashing satellite improved his
    home's Feng Shui. As a bonus, it
    also drove out all the evil spirits.
    Give the man a break, already.

  26. Friends and family by MMaestro · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or he really could have 'good luck' for the year. After all, if you suddenly heard that your brother or your friend's house suddenly burned down with no insurance, chances are you'd at least let him sleep over your house for a couple days. This is China where family is still considered to be the center, not the USA where family is just what you leech off of till you get a job/till you get kicked out.

  27. Communist News Translation Service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The satellite destroyed the building in Sichuan province, but officials say no-one was hurt.

    Officials say that no one with families powerful enough to demand reperations from the government was hurt.

    "The satellite landed in our home. Maybe this means we'll have good luck this year," the tenant of the wrecked apartment was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

    "The satellite landed in our neighbor's home. Since the government is making us say we lived there, maybe they'll make sure we have good luck this year to keep us from blabbing."

    For the benefit of the humor-impaired and tinfoil-hat crowd... I'm joking.

  28. House for sale. by Eevee · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a fixer-upper, but it gets excellent satellite reception.

  29. Re-entry capsule: what's inside? by aheikkinen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    According to sources mentioned above, the capsule is a re-entry vehicle and it stayed completely intact. Actually it came down via parachute.

    That satellite from which this capsule was dropped off has been up there for only last 18 days. My guess is that it hasn't got anything to do with science and very much with military intelligence.

    For good part of the cold war both US and USSR used capsules to relay back intel images as radio and camera technology was not yet enough mature to do the job right. The chinese might still be (atleast partially) using robust methods which are proven to work - same with their manned missions.

    People managing their space program are definately calculating re-entry trajectories carefully so they know atleast approximately where the retrieval point is. No way they would drop a capsule by accident to populated areas.

    I'd say it was a hastened retrieval of latest intelligence, someone needed those images very badly and was ready to take the risk.

    Just my two cents.

  30. What are the chances by dfrick · · Score: 3, Insightful

    that a satellite crashed on Chinese soil and didn't hit a person?

  31. Astrology tradition by Maljin+Jolt · · Score: 4, Insightful

    According chinese traditional astrology, such event is considered very lucky, because of involvment of heaven element. So the guy's reasoning is very rational in paradigm of his culture. All those of you americans who are slashing and bashing chinese government propaganda in this thread, think at first about your own culture paradigms and government propaganda rooted in them, they are far more dangerous to anybody as well as to you yourself.

    --
    There you are, staring at me again.