Vacationing in Cabo San Lucas offerers its own potential dangers, but it usually involves drinking too much tequila. Some vacationers were concerned with the potential hazard of a 25-ton booster rocket falling on their heads this weekend, but thankfully, that will not happen.
There was a massive piece of Chinese space junk zipping through space that some smart people felt was on a collision course with Cabo. It was the Long March booster rocket that helped send China’s Wentian model to their space station. It was launched on July 24th and scheduled to collide with earth Saturday, and it did, landing passively landing in the Indian Ocean far from any tourists.
Water landings are the norm since oceans cover 71 percent of the Earth’s surface. Dying from space junk is less likely than winning the $1.3 billion Mega Millions Lottery twice. Per year. For an entire lifetime.
Ted Muelhaupt is a consultant for Aerospace Corporation. He was quoted in a Daily Wire story as saying the odds of an individual being injured by flying space junk is somewhere between 1 in 6 trillion and 1 in 10 trillion.
He added that the odds of being struck by lightning are 80,000 greater.
The problem is that China is once again not playing by the rules. They launch their rockets into space with no controlled reentry plan. That’s not cool.
Here’s a quote from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson in the Daily Wire story.
“Spacefaring nations must minimize the risks to people and property on Earth of reentries of space objects and maximize transparency regarding those operations. It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris.”
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