Heads up! Where and when the Chinese space station will crash.

[deluxestogie]

Whew! Thank goodness. We now know when and where the Chinese space station careening out of control will strike Earth. It's presently about 1/2 the altitude of the ISS.

"Tiangong-1 is currently predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere around April 3rd, 2018 ± 1 week."
http://www.aerospace.org/cords/reentry-predictions/tiangong-1-reentry/

It's over 30 feet long x 10 feet wide, and weighs around 9 tons. It is most likely to come down exactly in the area marked in yellow (see below), though it might come down exactly in the green area. You guys in the blue are good.

Some of it will burn up (might be interesting), and some of it will strike exactly where they are saying. So, look up on April 3rd, 2018 ± 1 week (no time specified).

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

To be more specific, it will not strike the tobacco plants in ChinaVoodoo's windy front yard.

Bob

 

[KiwiGrown]

I'm in the yellow line !

 

[riverstone]

Cover your plants up KiwiGrown. Here comes another Chinese import.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

So much precision! It's a marvel that the label Made in China has been synonymous with poorly made.

 

[burge]

On the bright side you may have some imported flavor

 

[Orson Carte]

Whew! Thank goodness. We now know when and where the Chinese space station careening out of control will strike Earth. It's presently about 1/2 the altitude of the ISS.

"Tiangong-1 is currently predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere around April 3rd, 2018 ± 1 week."
http://www.aerospace.org/cords/reentry-predictions/tiangong-1-reentry/

It's over 30 feet long x 10 feet wide, and weighs around 9 tons. It is most likely to come down exactly in the area marked in yellow (see below), though it might come down exactly in the green area. You guys in the blue are good.

Some of it will burn up (might be interesting), and some of it will strike exactly where they are saying. So, look up on April 3rd, 2018 ± 1 week (no time specified).

Bob

That Earth looks pretty flat to me.
So, I'm not too worried at this stage - there's half a chance chance that it might land somewhere around the bottom side (where it's far too dark to grow baccy).

 

[deluxestogie]

Tiangong-1 is currently predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere around April 1st, 2018 07:15 UTC ± 20 hours.
http://www.aerospace.org/cords/reentry-predictions/tiangong-1-reentry/

You can actually track it in real time here: http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=37820U. It will move as you watch the page.

Since it's travelling at 17,400 miles per hour, that ± 20 hours is ± 348,000 miles of travel.

Bob

 

[MarcL]

I like this one. http://www.n2yo.com/?s=37820

 

[deluxestogie]

That's a nice one, Marc.

EDIT: I just noticed that if you bring up both of the live tracking pages, they show Tiangong-1 in different parts of the world simultaneously. Hmmm.

 

[Garlisk]

I'm not sure what it means, but I'm mildly concerned about being where red and blue lines converge.

 

[deluxestogie]

On that particular graphic, the dotted lines are present orbit and previous orbit. If it lands on your house, be sure to post some nice photos on the forum, before the men in black swoop in a carry it all away.

Bob

 

[ArizonaDave]

On that particular graphic, the dotted lines are present orbit and previous orbit. If it lands on your house, be sure to post some nice photos on the forum, before the men in black swoop in a carry it all away.

Bob

Well if it lands nearby, take pictures?

 

[deluxestogie]

"Tiangong-1 is currently predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere around April 1st, 2018 20:30 UTC ± 8 hours."

That computation is from this morning's data. Translated to US East Coast (EDT) time zone (UTC-5), that would be between 7:30 am on Easter, to 11:30 pm EDT. It's moving so fast, becoming so wobbly and tumbly, and the atmosphere is so irregular at its present orbit, that I doubt anyone will be able to predict its actual re-entry until it happens.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Tiangong-1 is currently predicted to reenter the Earth’s atmosphere around April 1st, 2018 23:53 UTC ± 7 hours.

23:53 UTC = 6:53 pm EDT, so between Easter day 11:53 am EDT and Monday 1:53 am EDT.

satview.org say 12:42 am Monday on the US East Coast.

Bob

 

[FmGrowit]

EDIT: I just noticed that if you bring up both of the live tracking pages, they show Tiangong-1 in different parts of the world simultaneously. Hmmm.

They're probably both wrong. HEADS UP!

 

[FmGrowit]

satview.org say 12:42 am Monday on the US East Coast.

Bob

Damnit, Now I have to plan on staying up until 1:00 in the morning tomorrow night to see this thing burning up straight over my head.

 

[deluxestogie]

It's a urologic problem. The sun has a weak stream.

A high-speed stream of particles from the Sun, which was expected to reach Earth and influence our planet’s geomagnetic field, did, in fact, not have any effect, and calmer space weather around Earth and its atmosphere is now expected in the coming days.

This means that the density of the upper atmosphere, through which Tiangong-1 is moving, did not increase as predicted (which would have dragged the spacecraft down sooner) and hence the ESA Space Debris Office has adjusted the predicted decay rate.

http://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2018/03/26/tiangong-1-reentry-updates/

 

[deluxestogie]

If you happen to be in Central European Time Zone:

Well, we know this puppy is definitely going to come down.

Bob

 

[Levi Gross]

Forget the Japanese beetles... It's Chinese space labs. Hope that pile of junk does not land here. Indiana seems to be a yellow zone.