{"id":19373,"date":"2022-07-29T04:14:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-29T08:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/?p=19373"},"modified":"2022-08-01T06:09:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T10:09:08","slug":"its-raining-space-junk-over-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/its-raining-space-junk-over-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s raining space junk over Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Update July 31:<\/span> <\/strong>Space debris from a rocket launch in China last week splashed down harmlessly in the Indian Ocean on July 30. It made headlines for a few reasons – it was very large, was on an uncontrolled trajectory, and could have landed in Western Europe. Future launches may carry the same risks – the next one is planned for October.<\/em><\/p>\n

——————<\/p>\n

Something big this way falls.<\/p>\n

A large bit of space junk is due to re-enter, and so far they aren’t exactly sure where.<\/p>\n

The Space Junk.<\/h4>\n

It is part of the Long March CZ-5B<\/strong> – the core stage of the rocket launched July 24 to send models of the Chinese Space Station up into space.<\/p>\n

This hefty lump of junk is actually one of the biggest bits to ever re-enter,<\/strong> weighing in at an impressive\u00a017 to 23 tonnes and measuring 53 meters. That’s after bits have burnt off…<\/p>\n

The Re-Entry.<\/h4>\n

It is due to fall back around July 30 or July 31.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is being tracked by the EUSST (EU Space Surveillance and Tracking) agency<\/strong> which you can visit here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Here is the current re-entry window. <\/strong>The latest is saying Sunday July 31 at 1107z\u00a0<\/strong>(but with a +\/- 29 hour uncertainty window which is about 38 orbits).<\/p>\n

\"\"

The wide window should narrow as it gets closer<\/p><\/div>\n

And here is the current re-entry track…<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"

Anywhere on the green line… but probably on the red bits.<\/p><\/div>\n

It is predicted to most likely effect parts of Southern Europe – Bulgaria, France, Greece, Italy, Malta<\/b>, Portugal, Spain\u00a0<\/b>being the most likely “fall” areas. Again, as it falls closer, this will be narrowed down.<\/p>\n

Are we worried?<\/h4>\n

Not really. They’re tracking it and as it gets closer and a clear idea of where it will fall is available, Notams on airspace closures<\/strong> will be issued.<\/p>\n

Here is the EASA SIB<\/a>\u00a0with all their information and advice to date on it.<\/p>\n

And here are a few other<\/a> Space related things to read<\/a> while you wait for CZ-5B to make its blazing appearance in our skies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update July 31: Space debris from a rocket launch in China last week splashed down…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":19393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1994],"class_list":{"0":"post-19373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-briefings","8":"tag-space-debris"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19373"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19419,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19373\/revisions\/19419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ops.group\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}