Old part of International Space Station lands on family home
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
reminds me of when i had Apollo/reddit set up with a bunch of filters for depressing words
I have doubts about this, given that this _keeps happening_.
Extremely events do indeed happen regularly if you have enough rolls of the die.
This incident makes ~15 cases of debris striking people or property since the start of the space age. In most of those the debris was found either washed up on shore or landed in some wide, open area like a farm, with only 4 of those incidents involving actual hits on humans/animals, 7 humans in total (5 sailors injured in one incident, a woman tapped on the shoulder, a boy getting hit in the head and toe, and a sheep being killed).
In the Long March's case, it is by design that the stages fall back down and often land near villages. It isn't an accident when they keep doing it despite obviously knowing that it would happen (thus the rocket debris warnings being issued prior to the launch).
I count these separately because of course you're at a higher risk of getting hit when the process by which you would get hit is actively controlled in such a way that would cause the chance to be higher.
In comparison, this debris strike was not intended, the battery was expected to fully burn up during reentry. The other incidents I cited were similar, they were all orbital debris that was not expected to make it back intact or hit an inhabited area.
ISS is in orbit, and the inclination of 51.6° means any debris can reenter at basically any point on the globe up to this latitude.
I'm ok with "landing" preceded by "crash".
There’s an argument that it’s not wrong, but it’s definitely not a typical use of the word. “Land” does not imply controlled descent but it does imply a non-catastrophic settling in the new position.
I've spoken fluent Commonwealth English in Australia and across multiple countries for > 6 decades .. what flavour of English do you speak ?
Addendum: By way of example:
The incident comes roughly a year after another similar Chinese rocket fell to Earth, landing in the Atlantic Ocean but not before it reportedly left a trail of debris in the African nation of Cote D'Ivoire.
https://theconversation.com/a-giant-piece-of-space-junk-is-h...
Dunno 'bout you but I reckon an Emeritus Professor of International Law from a Commonwealth country might not be too shabby at the olde mother tongue?
FFS don't go all Webster, Strunk & White on us now .. #NotMyEngrish
Yes.
A: I dropped my sofa while moving it and it landed on my foot.
Verb (intr.): to park a spacecraft by gently cushioning its uncontrolled ballistic descent with a house
- "Otero's insurance covered damages to his home, but the provider will make a subjugated claim to seek reimbursement, Worthy said. Otero will also file a claim for unspecified non-insured damages, she said."
- "Michelle Hanlon, executive director of the Center for Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi, said the Federal Tort Claims Act outlines the government's liability for damages in instances like this one. But Worthy said the laws in this area "may be inadequate.""
- ""This may be a situation where we have to make the claim and make the law... and we'll see how NASA responds," she said. "We have a good rapport with the (NASA) general counsel. Our goal is to make Alejandro whole, but in addition to that, we're trying to engage in a conversation about what do responsible space operations look like in the international picture.""
https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/04/florida-man-tells-ars-...
https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/34928/did-nasa-...