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#ChineseRocket Ok I'm gonna put this out because this situation is pretty ridiculous. Yes, China was irresponsible, and their deorbiting system on the Long March 5B failed, as such it'll do an uncontrolled re-entry. No one talking about this though seems to understand (1/5)
that it will not survive re-entry. The parts that are most likely to survive are the engines at the base of the vehicle and maybe some piping, not most of the 20-ton launch vehicle. The vehicle will enter Earth's atmosphere at 8 km/s (5 mi/s) and will undergo extreme (2/5)
heat which will violently obliterate all the parts of the rocket which aren't designed to withstand those extreme temperatures. This isn't a "China is bad" thing, this is just a spent booster re-entering. No one seems to be complaining about how SLS, an 80-ton booster. (3/5)
every single launch, or how the Space Shuttle did something similar with its external tank. Skylab had an uncontrolled re-entry and weighed over 70 tons, and the S-II stage for that launch orbited Earth for 18 months before re-entering, and that weighed 36 tons. (4/5)
All this improper news coverage is doing is creating more Chinese fearmongering. It's inaccurate, unscientific, and extremely hypocritical. Shit like this is now an excuse for why we shouldn't explore space, and hate at China, leading to Asian hate. Really disappointing. (5/5)
