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Tiangong-1 reentry window narrowed to only 3.4 hours and two orbits

The sky is falling! The Tiangong-1 reentry window has now been narrowed to only 3.4 hours and two orbits, centered on 8:30 pm (Eastern) on April 1.

It appears the world might be dodging this very minor bullet. The new window, which the spacecraft has just now entered as I write this, has allowed for the first prediction on where it should come down, and it appears that this will be in the southern hemisphere in the Pacific west of South America.

Update: Tiangong-1 came down in the Pacific Ocean at 8:15 pm (Eastern) on April 1.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

6 comments

  • wayne

    Here in Michigan, the Governor has activated our State’s “Emergency Operations Center; Anti-Satellite Re-Entry Division,” to handle the Crisis. We are to expect brown-outs if they have to divert power to the deflector array.

    pivoting…
    DEVO
    “Space Junk”
    https://youtu.be/Z2dcVIEQwEE
    (2:14)

  • Andrew_W

    Thanks Wayne, but can you please attach a warning next time you link to a horrendous racket like that?

  • Dick Eagleson

    If I’ve interpreted the co-ordinates given on the Aerospace Corp. website correctly, Tiangong’s remains seem to have come down at a spot in the Southwest Pacific roughly 400 miles due East of American Samoa. Aerospace’s last estimated splashdown position was evidently a few minutes of orbital travel time too optimistic.

    I don’t know how much of a light show Tiangong put on for the South Pacific islanders, but if there are any surviving cargo cultists among them, their explanations would be interesting to hear.

  • eddie willers

    I was on Tahiti and almost spilt my pineapple drink with the little umbrella.

  • wayne

    “Cargo Cult Science” by Richard Feynman
    Adapted from the Caltech commencement address 1974
    https://youtu.be/yvfAtIJbatg
    (20:32)

  • Keith

    I was kinda hoping it would hit the State House in Trenton.

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