The German satellite Rosat
narrowly missed Peking
as it crashed to Earth
in October 2011,
7 minutes later
and it would've been a case of
Peking duck!
Of course, we
in the West
were officially told of this near-miss
back in
January 2012.
Heute, an Austrian daily newspaper, dateline 30th January 2012 (i.e. today), reports as follows: Satellite narrowly missed Peking. It is only now being made known that the German satellite, Rosat, which crashed to Earth in October 2011, came close to hitting Peking. If the satellite had fallen to Earth seven minutes later it would have crashed into the Chinese city.
____
Wikipedia info.- ceramic satellite parts weighing up to 400 kg would have crashed into the Earth. The Bay of Bengal, east of India, was given as a location.
I guess it's a only a matter of time . . . a lot of space junk circling around over our heads and not all of it friendly . . .
Something fell to earth only a short time ago but can't remember what it was! Wonder where it fell.
ReplyDeleteIt was the Phobos Grunt. A rocket on its way to Mars. First they said it fell in the Pacific. Then they said it fell in the Atlantic. Then they said it fell in the Amazon Jungle. Then they said it fell in all 3 locations. Fortunately it didn't fall on Rio or Santiago. Apropos Santiago they've just had a 6.3 earthquake.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a bashed up Herbie there!
ReplyDeletePresumably the Chinese have got all the information out of the satellite now and suitably disposed of it to a scrap dealer. If they'd let on earlier they would have had to fend off 'visitors'!
Thanks Gordon, 420 seconds and counting . . .
ReplyDeletemaybe some friendly ufo crew guided it safely away from the metropolis after all many NASA astronauts have come out of the closet in recent years - they say these alien guys really are, as they say, out there
it would be interesting to know what damage a 400kg clump of satellite would do hurtling into a downtown shopping mal - good job it didn't come down all in one piece - over 2,500 kg
Herbie was an exhibit in a museum some place - it's not a scrapper like you think - it's an artwork - honest! But that's nothing - One time I got told off by a man in bland uniform and crepe soled shoes for hanging my jacket on a wire coat hanger in a museum. How was I to know it was an exhibit?
I mean the coat hanger was an exhibit although my jacket was tatty enough to qualify ;)
ReplyDelete