Has China Lost Control of Tiangong-1?
China’s Tiangong-1 space station ‘out of control’ and will crash to Earth, The Guardian
“China’s first space station is expected to come crashing down to Earth next year, fuelling concerns that Chinese space authorities have lost control of the 8.5-tonne module.”
“Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling,” the deputy director of China’s manned space engineering office, Wu Ping, was quoted as saying by official news agency Xinhua.”
“Jonathan McDowell, renowned Harvard astrophysicist and space industry enthusiast, said the announcement suggested China had lost control of the station and that it would re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere “naturally.”
Anyone for another round of ASAT target practice?
At least it wouldn’t be at an altitude to pose a long-term debris risk this time.
“Jonathan McDowell, renowned Harvard astrophysicist and space industry enthusiast, said the announcement suggested China had lost control of the station and that it would re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere “naturally.”
The kind of wisdom this “renowned” space industry “enthusiast” (translation: amature) is sharing with us is weird.
Jonathan’s been reporting on space news for at least the last 20 years. He’s an amateur only in that he doesn’t get paid.
Also, it sounds like you’re not familiar with “Jonathan’s Space Report”? You should check it out: he does a good ~ twice a week summary of what’s been going on in orbit.
I don’t know, never heard of him. If his report is the same kind of informationless weird stuff as quoted above, well, I already got the idea, thanks.
You may not know him but he is known in the space community. His reports, which post regularly to SpaceRef, are widely read. Here’s the latest: http://www.spaceref.com/new…
Marc- you might want to double-check that link over at SpaceRef to Jonathan (404). Here’s the one I use, if helpful: http://www.planet4589.org/s…
Fixed, thanks
I’m sure McDowell knew that the mainstream audience that he was speaking to would not likely infer on their own the implications of the official Chinese statements.
Get to know Jonathan he has stuff there you won’t find anywhere else, at least not in one place. The detail can be kinda overwhelming sometimes. Nothing amateur.