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Chinese Space Station Appears to be in "Slow Roll"

posted by martyb on Thursday July 14 2016, @06:42AM   
from the duck! dept.

butthurt writes:

Space.com reports (Tor-friendly link) that amateur satellite tracker Thomas Dorman has created imagery that suggests China's Tiangong-1 space station "is in a slow roll." If that is the situation, its motion is not under control and its solar panels are not aimed at the Sun.

In March, official news agency Xinhua reported that "Tiangong-1 terminated its data service" and that

The flight orbit of the space lab, which will descend gradually in the coming months, is under continued and close monitoring, according to the [manned space engineering] office, which said the orbiter will burn up in the atmosphere eventually.

The official statement and Dorman's observations have led to speculation that the craft's descent may take place in an uncontrolled manner, increasing the possibility that debris will fall in populated areas.

Additional coverage:

• Inquisitr
• The Independent
• Shanghaiist
• India Times
• Indian Express

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Original Submission

• Re:Depends on the orbital track Re:Depends on the orbital track (Score: 3, Insightful) by tibman on Thursday July 14 2016, @01:10PM

  by tibman (134) on Thursday July 14 2016, @01:10PM (#374340)

  Judging the abuse of their local environment i doubt space is any concern at all.

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  SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.

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• Re:Depends on the orbital track (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday July 14 2016, @05:02PM

  by bob_super (1357) on Thursday July 14 2016, @05:02PM (#374418)

  Every debris associated with that Chinese station is headed down pretty soon. We can't complain that they won't leave that orbit as clean as they had found it.

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