Early Tuesday morning, a huge piece of space junk from a Chinese spacecraft blazed over Southern California and crashed into Earth. The blazing junk put on quite a spectacle for Golden State residents.
Space Junk From Chinese Spacecraft Crashes Into Earth
The fall of the space junk from the Chinese spacecraft led to a fireball blazing over the skies. According to the AMS (American Meteor Society), individuals from Sacramento down to San Diego got to witness the fiery spectacle. As of the afternoon of April 2, the AMS received 81 reports from individuals who witnessed the event.
According to Jonathan McDowell, a satellite tracker and astrophysicist, the space debris chunk was the Chinese Shenzhou 15 spacecraft's orbital module.
The Chinese craft deployed three astronauts to the Tiangong space station of China in November 2022. It serves as the tenth crewed spaceflight from China and the fifteenth overall flight under the nation's Shenzhou program. Astronauts under the program were also able to safely and smoothly return to Earth after finishing a six-month mission to the Tiangong space station, which is also referred to as the Palace in the sky, of the country.
The Tiangong Space Station has around one-fifth the mass of the ISS (International Space Station), roughly 100 tons in weight and around the same size as the former space station of the Soviet Union. It is planned to operate for around 10 to 15 years.
This orbital module of the Shenzhou 15 Spacecraft weighs around 1,500 kilograms and offers added room for science experiments and astronauts. The orbital module was not designed to safely return to Earth by the end of its mission. Rather, the reentry module of the Shenzhou 15 is designed for such a feat, with astronauts aboard.
Mysterious Fireball
While the cosmic spectacle happened to be space junk, most eyewitnesses of the streak were unaware of what it was. Some believed that it could have been a hardware piece from SpaceX, which is quite a reasonable guess given how a Falcon 9 rocket deployed 22 Starlink internet satellites just around six hours earlier.
The fiery space junk could now have been from the first stage of the Falcon 9, however. This is because the hardware piece safely lands after launch and is also meant to be reused. However, the upper stage of the rocket is disposable.
Crashing Space Junk
The orbital module of the Shenzhou 15 is not the first huge chunk of space junk from China to dramatically crash into Earth. There is also the 23-ton core stage of the Long March 5B rocket. These routinely crash into Earth in a manner that is uncontrolled.
Such junk rashes have led to criticism from different people among the space community, including the heads of the European Space Agency and NASA. These authorities have said that these are irresponsible and even dangerous.
RELATED ARTICLE: How Much Space Junk Are There? Will the Cosmic Debris Affect Us on Earth?
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