8 ms·

Understandable, but an over reaction. Any debris not burning up is falling down after minutes.

• Kye 2y ago
  Would you bet hundreds of lives and millions of dollars on that?
  • ricardobeat 2y ago
    Yes. Space debris near orbiting speeds doesn't fall straight down, it's simple physics. If anything planes much further downrange (thousands of km) should be diverted, not immediately under the re-entry point.
    • deleted 2y ago
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    • ceejayoz 2y ago
      It wasn’t at orbital speeds yet.
      • ricardobeat 2y ago
        Over 21000km/h when it broke up, compared to ~28k for stuff orbiting in LEO. Should still go quite far.
        • ceejayoz 2y ago
          Yes, although drag is gonna be… substantially higher like this as well.
          • InDubioProRubio 2y ago
            Does melting down not reshape metallic particles into ideal droplett parts ?
            • ceejayoz 2y ago
              No. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/world/africa/kenya-space-debris-rocket.html https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/02/world/africa/kenya-space-...
    • s1artibartfast 2y ago
      The planes diverting were downrange. Also, I doubt they had much information to go off, and were essentially flying blind about where the debris were unless they had a direct line to NORAD. Do you have a better explanation why they are doing donuts over the pacific at the time of reentry, then were diverted? https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/ABX3133 https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/ABX3133 https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N121BZ/history/20250116/2000Z/KMDW/MBPV https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/N121BZ/history/20250... https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/NKS172 https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/NKS172
      • adolph 2y ago
        > donuts over the pacific Atlantic
        • s1artibartfast 2y ago
          Doh!
          • amcpu 2y ago
            Nuts!
      • ricardobeat 2y ago
        I don't have. Maybe they were indeed diverted because people got scared? Still seems pointless given the distances involved. Most reports are coming from social media / people watching flightradar24, and news media is just picking those up.
        • s1artibartfast 2y ago
          There are several, all at the same time, all in the same area, where the debreis was seen. Why do you think it is pointless? If I am a pilot and the tower says "debris seen heading east of Bahamas", I probably wont want to keep flying towards that direction. Yeah, it is probably low risk, but I dont have a super computer or detailed map of the Starship debris field or entry zone.
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