Astra. Posted April 1, 2018 #126 Share Posted April 1, 2018 2 minutes ago, seanjo said: It's gained height according to the tracker! Hmm, I wonder why or what makes it gain height. You'd think it would start to drop more. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra. Posted April 1, 2018 #127 Share Posted April 1, 2018 4 minutes ago, seanjo said: It's either instrument/radar accuracy, or the lack of, or the shape of the Earth, Oblate Spheroid... Oh, ok...that makes sense. 4 minutes ago, seanjo said: OR it might just want to avoid Aus! ^ ... Here's a thought. I wouldn't care to be in the space station atm. Imagine the g-forces. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toast Posted April 1, 2018 #128 Share Posted April 1, 2018 Now its losing 0,1km of altitude every 5 seconds, 15 minutes ago it was 8 seconds. 10kms in 10 minutes, BTW. Look here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted April 1, 2018 #129 Share Posted April 1, 2018 (edited) The Tiangong 1 space station is not in a perfectly circular orbit, so its altitude will vary, going up and down over the course of each trip around the Earth. The perigee (point nearest the Earth) was 171 km, late yesterday afternoon, and is about 158 km this morning. When it reaches 70 km, the end will probably come very quickly. That will likely happen fairly late in the day, on April 1st, or early in the morning, on the 2nd, GMT/ Universal Time. Edited April 1, 2018 by bison added information 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted April 1, 2018 #130 Share Posted April 1, 2018 The perigee of space station is now 144 km. Error bars for its fiery end have been narrowed to plus or minus two hours of 0 hours GMT/ UT, April 2nd. That's 6 to 10 p.m. for the East coast of the United States, 3 to 7p.m. for the West, April 1st. The rate at which Tiangong 1 descends will quicken more and more now, as it encounters increasing air resistance. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+susieice Posted April 1, 2018 #131 Share Posted April 1, 2018 From what I understand, this space station is only 1/10th the size of Skylab. I don't remember offhand how much of Skylab survived re-entry. It sounds like most of this one may not make it through. It will be some light show though. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.A.T.1961 Posted April 1, 2018 #132 Share Posted April 1, 2018 1 hour ago, susieice said: From what I understand, this space station is only 1/10th the size of Skylab. I don't remember offhand how much of Skylab survived re-entry. It sounds like most of this one may not make it through. It will be some light show though. Estimates say 20-40% could survive to the surface - that's 1.5-3.5 tonnes. That total will be in an assortment of mostly smaller bits, things like fuel tanks can survive intact. It's currently flying over China, if they had been a bit luckier China could have had it delivered back to them free of charge. Although there's another chance next orbit. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Noteverythingisaconspiracy Posted April 1, 2018 #133 Share Posted April 1, 2018 (edited) This is what it looks like when one of ESA's ATV's, in this case Jules Verne, burns up on reentry: The Jules Verne re-entered over the South Pacific, which is where spacecrafts are normally directed at the end of their lives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft_cemetery. Edited April 1, 2018 by Noteverythingisaconspiracy 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra. Posted April 1, 2018 #134 Share Posted April 1, 2018 That's interesting info as I had no idea that there was actually a spacecraft cemetery in the Pacific ocean where they normally directed the re-entry of spacecraft debris. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted April 1, 2018 #135 Share Posted April 1, 2018 Perigee now 135 km. The decline in altitude still seems to be progressing almost linearly. No sign yet of catastrophic increases in atmospheric friction. SatFlare.com is predicting re-entry by 02:13 GMT/UT., Apr. 2, at the latest. Many of the satellite tracking websites are no longer updating the altitude of the space station, or are becoming unavailable, or erratic due to high levels of traffic. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted April 2, 2018 #136 Share Posted April 2, 2018 (edited) Satview.com is reporting that the Tiangong 1 space station re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, and was destroyed approximately 5 minutes ago. It's reported that it crashed in the South Pacific Ocean, West of South America. Confirmation of this report, from other sources, is, of course, desirable. Edited April 2, 2018 by bison added information 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Noteverythingisaconspiracy Posted April 2, 2018 #137 Share Posted April 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, bison said: Satview.com is reporting that the Tiangong space station re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, and was destroyed approximately 5 minutes ago. It's reported that it crashed in the South Pacific Ocean, West of South America. Confirmation of this report, from other sources, is, of course, desirable. Sound very plausible. Since the Pacific covers over 40% of the Earths surface it was allways the most likely place. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.A.T.1961 Posted April 2, 2018 #138 Share Posted April 2, 2018 9 minutes ago, bison said: Satview.com is reporting that the Tiangong space station re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, and was destroyed approximately 5 minutes ago. It's reported that it crashed in the South Pacific Ocean, West of South America. I think the satview predicted re-entry was for that time ? if so the graphics may just be showing their prediction rather than what is happening to Tiangong. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted April 2, 2018 #139 Share Posted April 2, 2018 15 minutes ago, bison said: Satview.com is reporting that the Tiangong 1 space station re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, and was destroyed approximately 5 minutes ago. It's reported that it crashed in the South Pacific Ocean, West of South America. Confirmation of this report, from other sources, is, of course, desirable. Isn't it still too high to come down? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra. Posted April 2, 2018 #140 Share Posted April 2, 2018 18 minutes ago, bison said: Satview.com is reporting that the Tiangong 1 space station re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, and was destroyed approximately 5 minutes ago. It's reported that it crashed in the South Pacific Ocean, West of South America. Confirmation of this report, from other sources, is, of course, desirable. Yes, we definitely need confirmation. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted April 2, 2018 #141 Share Posted April 2, 2018 (edited) Reply to Merc 14--It's hard to be certain of that, as altitude figures aren't being reliably updated, and some websites aren't responding. Heavens Above had it passing over South America, on this orbit. It's not clear if they're tardy, or if Satview jumped the gun. Edited April 2, 2018 by bison added salutation 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+and-then Posted April 2, 2018 #142 Share Posted April 2, 2018 2 hours ago, Noteverythingisaconspiracy said: This is what it looks like when one of ESA's ATV's, in this case Jules Verne, burns up on reentry: The Jules Verne re-entered over the South Pacific, which is where spacecrafts are normally directed at the end of their lives. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spacecraft_cemetery. That was awesome! Thanks! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merc14 Posted April 2, 2018 #143 Share Posted April 2, 2018 2 minutes ago, bison said: Reply to Merc 14--It's hard to be certain of that, as altitude figures aren't being reliably updated, and some websites aren't responding. Heavens Above had it passing over South America, on this orbit. It's not clear if they're tardy, or if Satview jumped the gun. Oh well, I was hoping for a video but great study in orbital decay for folks who never watch this stuff like we space geeks. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+susieice Posted April 2, 2018 #144 Share Posted April 2, 2018 I see where it's re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. It may not actually be down yet. http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=37820U 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.A.T.1961 Posted April 2, 2018 #145 Share Posted April 2, 2018 (edited) This was posted on facebook and is said to show tiangong passing over Chile at 21:32 Edited April 2, 2018 by L.A.T.1961 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted April 2, 2018 #146 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Response to Merc 14--I was hoping to graph the increasing rate of descent, but the figures became unavailable. If the space station has crashed in such a remote location, it may take quite some time to confirm this. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+susieice Posted April 2, 2018 #147 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Thanks for the video L.A.T.1961. If that was video of the space station over Chile, it hadn't started to break up yet. Does sound like the Pacific will be the target. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bison Posted April 2, 2018 #148 Share Posted April 2, 2018 (edited) 16 minutes ago, susieice said: I see where it's re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. It may not actually be down yet. http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=37820U Yes, the official message from US Stratcom sounds considerably more tentative than Satview's report, which I read before. I think that Satview may have been relying too much on a prediction. Added-- I see that the US Stratcom message has been amended to give a plus or minus of just one minute, around the supposed time of re-entry. A couple of minutes before, it read plus or minus 120 minutes. This makes it considerably more definite. I think that 're-entered the atmosphere' means, in this instance, that the disintegration of the space station was believed to have begun. Edited April 2, 2018 by bison added information 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L.A.T.1961 Posted April 2, 2018 #149 Share Posted April 2, 2018 Vandenberg have confirmed re entry over the southern pacific ocean. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astra. Posted April 2, 2018 #150 Share Posted April 2, 2018 It perished over the NW of Tahiti according to this. http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/chinas-outofcontrol-tiangong-1-set-to-crash-into-earth-over-next-24-hours/news-story/960be65c9c36212e311d6a9d1ecb1b3e Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics stated: “North-west of Tahiti - it managed to miss the ‘spacecraft graveyard’ which is further south. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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