Hit the ground tonight – these places stand out

On Sunday evening, a Chinese space rocket that has crashed around Earth in recent days is expected to land.

The missile has a velocity of more than 28,000 kilometers per hour, and weighs about 22 tons.

Until now, it was difficult to predict where the missile would land, as it crashed around the Earth at extremely high speed.

The only thing that was relatively certain was that the missile would hit the ground on Sunday night. The latest forecasts indicate that the missile will hit the ground around 04.00 NST.

This weekend, there are some who have followed the missile’s flight particularly closely.

He fell 40 kilometers in the last 24 hours

Lingfeld Linya Andlesvik is the head of the department at the Norwegian Space Center, and in recent days he has been closely following where and when the rocket landed.

– I sit and watch all the time, see how it goes down and where it moves in the field, she says to TV 2 on Saturday night.

At about 7 p.m. on Saturday, the missile rose 140 kilometers above the surface of the earth. In the past 24 hours alone, the missile has fallen at a distance of 40 kilometers from the ground.

Andalusvik is keen to determine where it thinks the missile will land, but hopes it will not land in a populated area.

Friday was one of the chances that the missile would land in Japan, which is a densely populated region. But on Saturday it was blown up as a possible landing area.

Three countries in Europe

The space expert says it is now interesting to identify the remaining passports, that is, the likely landing areas.

A bit interestingly, many of the remaining passports pass through some countries in southern Europe, she says.

European countries stand out especially Spain, Portugal and Italy, as there are two or three so-called passports on the missile route that passes over these countries.

Madrid is not far, says Lingfeld, Andlesvik.

However, there is also the possibility that the missile could crash, for example in Dallas, USA, which also passes over it.

She realizes that it is difficult to say with certainty where exactly she will land, but she says that he becomes more confident the closer the missile approaches the ground.

It is likely to land anywhere along this line. And she says that the more lines it has, the more places it can land, because it will land on one of the places it has flown over.

There is a high probability that the missile will burn out when it hits the Earth’s atmosphere, but it is possible that large debris will hit the ground.

New Chinese space station

The portion of the missile that is now orbiting Earth is called a carrier rocket, and it corresponds to between 20 and 40 percent of the entire missile and weighs between 18 and 20 tons.

– That might not be good

The launch vehicle, which is now on an uncontrolled voyage around the world, was part of the successful New China Project.

Last week, the Chinese were able to cheer on the 30-meter Long March 5B rocket, as it brought with it the first part of what would be the new Chinese space station.

What exactly was the purpose of the missile launch?

Historically, both the United States and Russia were among the largest countries in space, so China has appeared on the scene in recent years. This rocket is exactly what they launched to create a space station that they want to build, says the head of the department at the Norwegian Space Center.

An international space station already exists, but in recent years China has had plans to build its own space station.

– It’s unusual that it came so high

The purpose of this rocket, Andalsvik says, was to bring the first portion of the space station into orbit.

Why was the launch launcher dropped in such an uncontrolled way that it could now crash somewhere on the ground?

Perhaps it was a calculated risk. It is not entirely certain. But the fact that they have no control over where it drops again is not uncommon. The unusual thing, she says, is that it came very high – and into orbit.

Refers to European missiles, as this part falls again upon takeoff from the ground. It then falls into the sea within a short time after launch.

The department head at the space center says it’s likely to land in an uninhabited area – at least you hope.

According to her, there are also positive aspects to his fall:

In a way, it’s good to fall, because what’s left ends up as alien trash. There are things that revolve around the Earth, that you cannot control and you cannot control. So it could happen that space junk collides with a satellite.