Chinese rocket debris photographed in space
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
An Italian astrophysicist has captured the almost 100-foot Chinese rocket core that is expected to make an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere over the weekend.
Gianluca Masi, who runs the online Virtual Telescope Project, took a 0.5-second exposure photo of the fast-moving Long March 5B rocket from Italy using the "Elena" 17-inch Paramount robotic telescope.
"At the imaging time, the rocket stage was at about 700 km from our telescope, while the sun was just a few degrees below the horizon, so the sky was incredibly bright: these conditions made the imaging quite extreme, but our robotic telescope succeeded in capturing this huge debris," Masi wrote in a release.
In addition, he noted the "typical CCD blooming effect" -- when shooting a bright light source that appears as a halo or line defect -- due to the extreme brightness of the debris.
Masi said he would attempt to photograph the core again.
The image comes from a single, 0.5-second exposure, remotely taken with the "Elena" (PlaneWave 17″+Paramount ME+SBIG STL-6303E) robotic unit available at Virtual Telescope. The telescope tracked the exceptionally fast (0.3 deg/second) apparent motion of the object. (Gianluca Masi, The Virtual Telescope)
While the core is expected to reenter the atmosphere as early as Saturday, exactly when and where remains unknown and will remain that way until just hours before impact.
Although the core will likely break apart and burn up in the upper atmosphere, U.S. Space Command is actively tracking its trajectory.
"The United States is committed to addressing the risks of growing congestion due to space debris and growing activity in space," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday. "We want to work with the international community to promote leadership and responsible space behaviors. It's in the shared interests of all nations to act responsibly in space to ensure the safety, stability, security and long-term sustainability of outer space activities."
Psaki added that if damage occurs from the debris -- for which China could be held financially liable -- the White House would consult with U.S. Space Command and the Department of Defense on how best to proceed.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that the U.S. has no plans to shoot down the core.
However, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbing, stated Friday that Chinese authorities would release information about the reentry of the rocket in a "timely manner."
Wang said China "pays great attention to the re-entry of the upper stage of the rocket into the atmosphere."
In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a Long March 5B rocket carrying a module for a Chinese space station lifts off from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in Wenchang in southern China's Hainan Province, Thursday, April 29, 2021. (Ju Zhenhua/Xinhua via AP)
"As far as I understand, this type of rocket adopts a special technical design, and the vast majority of the devices will be burnt up and destructed during the reentry process, which has a very low probability of causing harm to aviation activities and the ground," he told attendees at a regularly scheduled media briefing.
For China, this isn't the first time a situation like this has occurred.
Debris from another Long March 5B rocket rained down on at least two villages along Africa's Ivory Coast last May.
While the pieces of the booster largely fell in the Atlantic Ocean (about 70% of the Earth's surface is covered by water), coordinate updates from Space-Track.org -- where the U.S. Space Command's 18th Space Control Squadron offers daily updates -- are all over the globe.
The site's most recent tip posted to Twitter shows projected reentry on Sunday at "04:25(UTC) +/- 900 minutes at latitude -32.4 longitude 179.3."
"NOTE: This is a huge, 30 hr window, and the time/location of re-entry will continue to vary wildly," it wrote.
The Aerospace Corporation -- a nonprofit largely financed by the federal government, according to The New York Times -- shows body reentry on Sunday at "03:53 UTC ± 11 hours," though it admitted it was "still too early to determine a meaningful debris footprint."
The Long March 5B was used to launch the core module of China's first permanent space station on April 28.
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"The United States is committed to addressing the risks of growing congestion due to space debris and growing activity in space," White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday. "We want to work with the international community to promote leadership and responsible space behaviors. It's in the shared interests of all nations to act responsibly in space to ensure the safety, stability, security and long-term sustainability of outer space activities."....Jen Psaki
Psaki added that if damage occurs from the debris -- for which China could be held financially liable -- the White House would consult with U.S. Space Command and the Department of Defense on how best to proceed.
Jen, no matter what happens NOTHING is going to be done about it and you know it.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that the U.S. has no plans to shoot down the core.
What a surprise!/s
Presenting the latest gift from the CCP.
Is it racist to call this “Chinese” rocket debris?
Not any more than it was when in the past "American" or "Soviet" space debris fell to earth
China can't seem to control stuff...be it a deadly virus or a rocket booster
I note that there were cases where debris fell on the USA from American rockets. Gee whiz - I thought that was IMPOSSIBLE, and hey, astronaugts and a school teacher being killed on a flight, and due to my sympathy I didn't make it my morning laugh about China not being able to control a deadly virus being said by someone from a country with more than 550,000 who died from it.
Curious what kind of litigation can be brought against the CCP if that junk falls on someone's farm or back yard in the West?
Anoon ed....from what we were told none..be it Chinese Russian or American..
People asked that question when we had Skylab land on us back in 1997 I think it was...some pieces missed stations in the outback by a couple of kilometres.
Afternoon Shona. I really had zero expectations that the CCP would. I would expect it more from the US more than China. CCP just does not care one way or the other.
The US never paid anything for the debris from the Space Lab that landed in Australia, Doc.
Hi Shona if I remember one of the outcomes from that correctly Australia issued a $100 littering fine to the US. Lol not sure if it was ever paid
It was a $400 fine and no, it was never paid...LOL
I never said otherwise.
Never said you did, just clarifying a point.
Your welcome.
No problem.😁
The news as of an hour ago was, subject to confirmation, that the debris landed in the Indian Ocean. Game over.
Yep just crashed off Mauritius so all good...
Oops sorry..off the Maldives not Mauritius..my bad...
Pieces of a runaway Chinese rocket have rained down on the Indian Ocean, quelling fears it would hit people or property
All other space-capable countries tightly control their first-stage rockets, and they either safely splash down into the ocean before entering orbit or – in the case of SpaceX – return to the surface in a controlled descent for reuse.
Almost exactly a year ago, another Long March 5B rocket stage reentered the atmosphere, narrowly missing New York City before slamming into a West African village. No one was hurt, but China plans to launch many more of the rockets as it assembles its new Tianhe space station, and each mission carries risk until authorities there enhance their safety measures.
As usual the CCP does not care what other nations think about it. They plan to launch many more of the rockets - so get used to it!
Well, all other countries rather than China are welcome on the ISS, even Russia, so since China is persona non grata I would venture that it doesn't give a shit. I'll bet if China was treated the same it wouldn't have felt it needed to create its own space station.
Sounds like china needs to steal more technology. [Deleted]
Confirmed reports of space debris falling back to earth date back to 1969. The two worst were the Russian Cosmos 954 in 1978 that spread the wreckage across Northern Canada. The Canadian government billed the Russians $6 million dollars of which the Russians paid $3 million.
The other was the horrible 2003 explosion of the Columbia that cost the lives of seven of our astronauts and 84,000 pieces of debris were recovered from Texas and Louisana.
The lastest just before the Chinese wreckage was in Feb. from the SpaceX where a couple of pieces of debris landed in Washington and Oregon.
Kavika people are spewing partisan rhetoric here how dare you bring up facts
Wait a second, Kavika, that can't be possible. Greg Jones just said that Americans know how to do it right, and how can he possibly be wrong?
The other thing to take into account is percentage of uncontrolled reentries as compared to number of launches.