from Hacker News

Falling Chinese Space Station to Crash This Weekend

by awl130 on 3/31/18, 11:41 PM with 53 comments

  • by teraflop on 4/1/18, 3:55 AM

    The predictions have narrowed considerably since the tweet in this article was posted. This site has an up-to-date forecast: http://www.aerospace.org/cords/reentry-predictions/tiangong-...

    (You may need to click through to the full-resolution image and manually refresh to see the latest updates.)

  • by jgh on 4/1/18, 12:21 AM

    interesting that they have pretty much no idea where it will end up, i thought they'd be able to estimate that a bit.

  • by wallace_f on 4/1/18, 6:13 AM

    >this morning, Tiangong-1 was orbiting between 178 and 189 km (117 mi.) in altitude, having descended 7 km in the past 24 hours

    The Wikipedia page lists its intended perigee and apogee at 168-178km. So either Wikipedia, or the article, are mistaken.

    For reference, Salyut, the old Russian space station, was in orbit at 220-280km. The ISS and most others orbit around at a little over 400km.

  • by elijahparker on 4/1/18, 4:31 AM

    The Sky Guide iOS app (and likely others -- it's just the one I have) shows the path if you search for Tiangong-1. From my location here in MN, the next time it is will be above the horizon is Monday morning around 4:50am. It leaves only a very slim chance of seeing anything from here, but I'll have a camera running on my roof just in case.

    Still, I wonder if the data in the app is updated regularly enough to account for the recent changes, or if it's just showing the original orbit?

  • by dopeboy on 4/1/18, 3:32 AM

    How's this work on an international coordination level? Does the Chinese space agency contact its counterparts and give a heads up?

  • by dis-sys on 4/1/18, 12:47 PM

    could be fun if someone picks up some debris and put it on ebay for auction.

    given that the international treaty explicitly states that the nation which launched such stuff should be responsible for its possible reentry damages, is there any international laws or treaties stating that the debris still legally owned by the nation that launched it?

  • by ChuckMcM on 4/1/18, 3:22 AM

    I wish there was a twilo service that would text me when it starts its last 2 or 3 orbits.

  • by joering2 on 4/1/18, 7:19 AM

    Honest question; there is a nuclear reactor about 10 miles from new york city; how is it protected against such sattelite smashing at the top of the dome? Wouldnt that be Chernobyl times 1,000 ? And does new york city have a solid plan on evacuating 8 million people off the island in some reasonable amount of time?

  • by skookumchuck on 4/1/18, 1:42 AM

    Chance of MetalStorm: 100%