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8.5-Ton Chinese Space Station Will Crash To Earth In a Few Months (cnbc.com)

dryriver writes: China launched a space laboratory named Tiangong 1 into orbit in 2011. The space laboratory was supposed to become a symbol of China's ambitious bid to become a space superpower. After two years in space, Tiangong 1 started experiencing technical failure. Last year Chinese officials confirmed that the space laboratory had to be scrapped. The 8.5 ton heavy space laboratory has begun its descent towards Earth and is expected to crash back to Earth within the next few months.

Most of the laboratory is expected to burn up in earth's atmosphere, but experts believe that pieces as heavy as 100 kilograms (220 pounds) may survive re-entry and impact earth's surface. Nobody will be able to predict with any precision where those chunks of space laboratory will land on Earth until a few hours before re-entry occurs. The chance that anyone would be harmed by Tiangong-1's debris is considered unlikely.


When NASA's SkyLab fell to earth in 1979, an Australian town fined them $400 -- for littering.

7 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Same thing happens to me by Jason1729 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The space laboratory was supposed to become a symbol of China's ambitious bid to become a space superpower. After two years in space, Tiangong 1 started experiencing technical failure. Last year Chinese officials confirmed that the space laboratory had to be scrapped.

    Every time I buy Chinese made tech, I start out with high hopes for it. Then 2 years later everything starts breaking and I have to give up and scrap it and buy something good.

    1. Re:Same thing happens to me by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 3, Funny

      In Mandarin that translates to
      (thanks to /. unicode support).

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      Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
  2. Re:Very Accurate by dmesg0 · · Score: 4, Informative

    The chances of the debris to hit anyone are low (the area with actual humans on it divided by total area of earth), that's why it's unlikely. If they do hit someone, the chances of harm are quite high, but again, that's unlikely to happen.

  3. Beware falling toilet seats by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Those things will get you a post-it note for sure.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  4. Re:Very Accurate by sconeu · · Score: 3, Funny

    Only if you're having a nice hot cup of tea.

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  5. Re:Dead like me? by InterGuru · · Score: 5, Funny

    "she is hit by the toilet seat of the re-entering Space Station"

    An ass toroid

  6. Re:Very Accurate by Wraithlyn · · Score: 3, Funny

    I think you'll find most people on Slashdot are familiar with Hitchhiker's Guide. But your reference need to contain an actual.... reference.

    "Ford," said Arthur, "there's an infinite number of monkeys at the door who'd like to discuss the probability of Tiangong-1 hitting someone..."

    --
    "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson