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Missing context: this is working as intended. Tiangong-1 was China's first space station demonstrator ("target vehicle", in official parlance) and barely large

Missing context: this is working as intended. Tiangong-1 was China's first space station demonstrator ("target vehicle", in official parlance) and barely larger than the Shenzhou spacecraft used to fly there, itself essentially a modernized copy of the 1960s-vintage Soviet Soyuz craft. It has already been succeeded by Tiangong-2 "space laboratory", which is also at end of life (operational but no further missions planned), and will be succeeded around 2019 by China's first "real" space station, which will be modular and designed for lengthy stays in space. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiangong-2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_large_modular_space_station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_large_modular_space_st...

bjourne 9y ago
If it crashes to earth, wont it release large amount of debris in the atmosphere?
- FooBarWidget 9y ago
  90% of the debris burns up in the atmosphere. The remaining 10% -- who knows where they end up, but it is said that it's unlikely that the debris hit anything important. This isn't the first time something like this happened. When NASA's SkyLab fell to earth in 1979, an Australian town fined them $400 -- for littering. https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/14/1556228/nasas-skylab-400-littering-fine-paid-by-dj https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/14/1556228/nasas-sk...
  - bjourne 9y ago
    I was thinking about space debris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris
- FussyZeus 9y ago
  We crash satellites and spacecraft all the time. Most burns up during re-entry, the rest...well that's why they aim for oceans usually.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- kabdib 9y ago
  Every day, an estimated hundred tons of debris (mostly meteoric dust) hits the earth's atmosphere. A satellite is not a big deal; it burns up, possibly with small chunks hitting the surface. Even if you were directly on the ground track for this thing, you wouldn't notice anything aside from the reentry fireball.

bjourne 9y ago

If it crashes to earth, wont it release large amount of debris in the atmosphere?

FooBarWidget 9y ago
90% of the debris burns up in the atmosphere. The remaining 10% -- who knows where they end up, but it is said that it's unlikely that the debris hit anything important. This isn't the first time something like this happened. When NASA's SkyLab fell to earth in 1979, an Australian town fined them $400 -- for littering. https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/14/1556228/nasas-skylab-400-littering-fine-paid-by-dj https://science.slashdot.org/story/09/07/14/1556228/nasas-sk...
- bjourne 9y ago
  I was thinking about space debris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_debris
FussyZeus 9y ago
We crash satellites and spacecraft all the time. Most burns up during re-entry, the rest...well that's why they aim for oceans usually.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
kabdib 9y ago
Every day, an estimated hundred tons of debris (mostly meteoric dust) hits the earth's atmosphere. A satellite is not a big deal; it burns up, possibly with small chunks hitting the surface. Even if you were directly on the ground track for this thing, you wouldn't notice anything aside from the reentry fireball.