“It was supposed to renter the Earth’s atmosphere in a controlled manner and crash into the Pacific Ocean,” Harvard University astrophysicist Dr Jonathan McDowell told the BBC.
"But the engine failed. We’ve seen it orbiting Earth for the past few weeks and we were anticipating an uncontrolled re-entry today, which is what people saw burning in the sky.
“The debris zipped over England at around 17,000 mph, then parts of Scandinavia then parts crashed into eastern Europe at a few hundred miles an hour.”
Things will fall from the sky, mostly stainless steel, some carbon fiber, some ceramic tile. They could be falling in a bunch of different places, even populated ones (Though most will fall in the ocean). Most of the volatiles (propellant, pressurizing gases, hydraulic fluid, etc) have already escaped, so not much of that is coming down. It’s highly unlikely that debris will hurt anybody, but it is possible.
Some nations will be justifiably mad and there’s a remote chance someone gets hurt. But that’s about the end of the implications.
I can’t even begin to unpack the implications.
You’ve probably finished unpacking them…
Things will fall from the sky, mostly stainless steel, some carbon fiber, some ceramic tile. They could be falling in a bunch of different places, even populated ones (Though most will fall in the ocean). Most of the volatiles (propellant, pressurizing gases, hydraulic fluid, etc) have already escaped, so not much of that is coming down. It’s highly unlikely that debris will hurt anybody, but it is possible.
Some nations will be justifiably mad and there’s a remote chance someone gets hurt. But that’s about the end of the implications.
Feels a lot like plastic bottles probably felt 40 years ago.
Gonna be real nice 40 from now when the super companies throwing space garbage at us are still riding the legal protections from today.