China Lost Control of Their Space Lab That Is Crashing To Earth and No One Knows Where It Will Hit

Get ready for expected fireballs falling to earth on Easter Sunday. In case you haven’t read the news as yet, the Chinese space station Tiangong -1 filled with toxic crap is all set to lose its orbit and plunge down to earth from space. The Chinese government issued the notification sometime last week and is not even sure where it is going to fall.

1China’s space lab will fall from space to earth on Easter Sunday

The Chinese space station named Tiangong 1 which means “Heavenly Palace” is China’s first space lab measuring 34 feet. It is almost the size of a school bus and weighs 8.5 tons. Although China has tried to reassure the world that there is nothing to be alarmed about, they themselves are relying on guesswork where it may fall. However, people from USA to India might just give a fireworks display of the debris reentering the earth’s atmosphere and crashing goodness knows where. 

Image Source: guim.co.uk

2What is the expected time of reentry in the earth’s atmosphere?

Previously according to the Chinese space agencies, the estimated time of re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere is on Easter Sunday the 1st of April at precisely 2pm GMT. Various space agencies around the earth have supplied different timings. Aerospace Corp has pegged the latest timings as 7:25 PM EDT or 23:25 GMT. So it’s safe to pull up a chair on your porch from 11pm at night with a nice hot cup of tea and wait there to see the show which may stretch into the early hours of Monday morning.

Image Source: blurbstory.com

3What’s happening right now?

The orbit of Tiangong is slowly taking it extremely close to the earth’s atmosphere. If the sun is more active, the solar winds will impact the atmospheric drag pulling the craft faster into the earth’s orbit. But this is why scientists feel it may also be delayed by a few hours or it may fall slower than usual as the solar activity is now weaker than expected. 

Image Source: uk.news.yahoo.com

4What will be seen?

Most of the craft is expected to burn up when reentering the earth’s atmosphere due to high degree of friction but 40% of its mass will survive and plunge down to Earth. 

Image Source: www.perugiatoday.it

5Where will it crash

The craft could crash into the ocean or even populated cities such as New York, Barcelona, Beijing, Chicago, Rome, Toronto or Istanbul. If that doesn’t scare you, then what’s even more worrying is the fact that the so-called Heavenly Palace called Tiangong -1 is full of toxic chemicals called hydrazine which is an ingredient used in rocket fuel? Long-term exposure to hydrazine can even cause cancer. 

Image Source: feedimo.com