China Sends Yet Another Rocket Stage Hurtling Uncontrollably Toward Earth

There’s a lot that China would like you to pay attention to when it comes to its just completed Tiangong (“Palace in the Sky”) space station—and there’s one thing the country would very much like you to ignore. On the upside, there’s the thousand or more scientific studies that crew members hope to carry out over the decade or so the station will be in operation; there are the 17 nations that will be flying experiments, and perhaps some astronauts, along with the Chinese taikonauts; and there’s the very speed with which the three module station was built. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] The core module—the Tianhe (“Harmony of the Heavens”)—was launched on April 29, 2021; the second module—the Wentian (“Quest for the Heavens”)—went aloft on July 24, 2022; and it was just this week, on Oct. 31 at 3:37 a.m. ET, that a Long March 5B rocket blasted off with the third and final component—the 22-ton Mengtian module (“Dreaming of the Heavens”) measuring 18 m (59 ft.) long, 4.2 m (13.8 ft) wide—completing the T-shaped station. As for that bit the Chinese would just as soon you not discuss: There was another piece of hardware—a 10-story tall, 23-ton first stage of the Long March 5B—that reached space along with the Mengtian before beginning an uncontrolled, somersaulting plunge back to Earth causing it to land, well, no one could say where. This ...
Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthscienceclimate Space Source Type: news