Chinese Satellite Crashes Into House

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Chinese Satellite Crashes Into House

Posted by timothy on Sunday October 17, 2004 @06:51AM 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."

26 of 406 comments (clear)

First Image by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-17 06:52 · Score: 5, Informative

Here's a picture.
1. Re:First Image by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-17 07:04 · 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.
2. Re:First Image by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-17 08:16 · 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
Nothing wrong? by octal666 · 2004-10-17 06:52 · Score: 5, Funny

Are they meaning the house-crashing was on schedule?

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DON'T PANIC
next year by morcheeba · 2004-10-17 06:53 · 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!

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HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
No thanks. by wankledot · 2004-10-17 06:53 · 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)

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My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
1. Re:No thanks. by Zardus · 2004-10-17 07:14 · 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 · 2004-10-17 07:26 · 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
So.. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-17 06:54 · Score: 5, Funny

Do they get to keep the satellite ??

Finders Keepers..
Loosers Weepers..
1. Re:So.. by wicka_wicka · 2004-10-17 07:03 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  I don't think that's communist policy. Losers keepers. Finders stabbed in the face.
  
  --
  hi
I don't understand by elid · 2004-10-17 06:55 · 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 morcheeba · 2004-10-17 07:03 · 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
2. Re:I don't understand by morcheeba · 2004-10-17 07:44 · 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
3. Re:I don't understand by rts008 · 2004-10-17 10:15 · 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
it could get worse... by selderrr · 2004-10-17 06:55 · 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

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When will I end this grieving ? When will my future begin ?
1. Re:it could get worse... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-17 07:14 · 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."
Definitely insured by travdaddy · 2004-10-17 06:57 · 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.

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Adidas To Bring Back Sneakernet
The roof is on fire! by Kenshin · 2004-10-17 06:59 · Score: 5, Funny

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

Burn, motherf***er, burn!

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Does it make you happy you're so strange?
In Communist China..... by reality-bytes · 2004-10-17 07:03 · Score: 5, Funny

In Communist China the satellite lands on you!

.....oh wait

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Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Subcontracted... by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-17 07:07 · 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!
Of course it was a spy satellite! by Anonymous Coward · 2004-10-17 07:12 · Score: 5, Insightful

China's spy satellites still use film. They deorbit them in order to retrieve the images.
Loony Toons.. by Mastadex · 2004-10-17 07:22 · Score: 5, Funny

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

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A morning without coffee is like something without something else.
Obviously, by quarkscat · 2004-10-17 07:43 · 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.
House for sale. by Eevee · 2004-10-17 08:21 · Score: 5, Funny

It's a fixer-upper, but it gets excellent satellite reception.
Re:Misleading summary (surprise surprise) by Detritus · 2004-10-17 08:24 · 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.

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Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Re-entry capsule: what's inside? by aheikkinen · 2004-10-17 08:47 · 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.