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Tiangong-1 Dashboard, reentry predicted 20180402T00:30 UTC +/- 1.7h (aerospace.org)
2 points by mkempe on April 1, 2018 | hide | past | favorite | 4 comments


Possibly now entered its last orbit. It's been losing altitude somewhat more slowly than predicted, so I don't envision it falling immediately W of Chile at the predicted time. [Update at 00:12 UTC -- definitely not crashing there, may have kept enough altitude to keep going another orbit!? China has a new prediction of 00:52 UTC +/- 41 minutes, that would be centered just W of Southern Africa.]

Here is an excellent overview. [1]

And here is fantastic footage from the 2008 reentry of Europe’s space freighter ATV Jules Verne burning up over an uninhabited area of the Pacific Ocean at the end of its mission. Similar size to the falling Chinese space station. [2]

[1] https://www.space.com/40164-chinese-space-station-crash-last...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhBw5yaR_SU


The current uncertainty path travels West to East; it passes three times over Southern South America; and twice over Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.


Oh, looks like their calculations and dashboard crashed past their predicted reentry time. It was reentry theater, on par with security theater.


Turns out we have a confirmed reentry at 00:16 UTC, over the Southern Pacific, and this is not a good platform or format for live-tracking.




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