This incredible 2-second exposure image was captured of an out-of-control Chinese satellite zooming through space on a collision course with Earth. “The Virtual Telescope Project and Tenagra Observatories offer you the unique chance to see it during one of its very last passages across the skies”.
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Parts of China’s Tiangong-1 space lab are expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at some time from this week, according to China’s manned space program, but no one knows for sure where. Aerospace Corporation, which tracks orbital objects, has put Tiangong-1’s demise at April 4, plus or minus one week.
Some observers have compared Tiangong-1’s descent to the spectacular crash of NASA’s 100-ton (91 metric tons) Skylab space station in 1979, which scattered debris in rural Australia.
Nasa’s 77-tonne Skylab space station came hurtling to Earth in an nearly completely uncontrolled descent in 1979, with some large pieces landing outside Perth in Western Australia. It has been steadily losing altitude ever since and is set to crash into Earth in the coming days. Scientists have said most of it is expected to burn up on reentry, but not all of it. Chunks weighing up to 220 pounds could hit the ground or fall into the ocean.
Like this story? Share it with a friend! Aerospace Corporation has created a dashboard the gives up-to-date information on the space station’s location. Here’s how to keep up with where the wayward space station is and where it might land.The most recent projections have the station re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere around April 1 at 12:15 p.m.
The station, known as Heavenly Palace or Tiangong-1, was launched on September 30, 2011.
“The global community doesn’t know what the craft is made of, and that makes estimating the danger more challenging, as hardened fuel containers could reach the ground while lightweight panels won’t”, he said. Therefore China still has claims to it, even if the debris falls in a different country and in the past Space Agency’s have prosecuted individuals who have “acquired” and then tried to sell debris from varying space-related craft.
In 1997 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Lottie Williams got a bruise on her shoulder from a small piece of debris from a rocket launched the year before.
It was created to be a manned lab, has two modules, including sleeping space for two astronauts, according to the Aerospace Corporation.
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China’s first space station has had a almost seven-year run.
