Latest news with #LongMarch5B
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Soviet-era spacecraft likely to crash back to Earth
The Soviet Union launched a number of missions to explore Venus – this probe was from an earlier flight [Getty Images] Part of a Soviet-era spacecraft is expected to crash back to Earth this week after being stuck in orbit for more than half a century. Kosmos 482 was launched in 1972 as part of a mission to Venus but it never escaped low Earth orbit and separated into four pieces, according to Nasa. One of those pieces, believed to be the lander probe, is expected to re-enter our atmosphere around 10 May and at least part of it could survive the journey without burning up, according to Nasa. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement There is much we don't know about the re-entry, including where it might land, but even if any of it does survive, 70% of the planet is covered by sea so it is unlikely to cause significant damage. "It's much more likely that you win the lottery than that you get impacted by this piece of space debris." said Mr Stijn Lemmens, Senior Space Debris Mitigation Analyst at the European Space Agency. The lander capsule is a tough, spherical object about a metre wide and weighs nearly half a tonne. It was built to survive the extreme heat and pressure of Venus's atmosphere, meaning it has a robust heat shield and durable structure. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement This is why experts think it may survive an uncontrolled descent through Earth's atmosphere. The parachute system, originally intended to slow the lander's descent towards Venus, is likely long since degraded after more than 50 years in space. The risk to people on the ground is considered low, but the capsule's projected flight path could see it land anywhere between 51.7° north and south latitude, covering most of the inhabited world. This means it could potentially land anywhere from as far north as London to as far south as the southern tip of South America. Uncontrolled space debris incidents have occurred before. ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement Mr Lemmens explained that the "re-entry of human-made objects into Earth's atmosphere occurs quite frequently," happening weekly for bigger spacecraft and daily for smaller ones. Objects typically burn up in the earth's atmosphere before they reach the ground. China's Long March 5B booster re-entered over the Indian Ocean in 2022, and the Tiangong-1 space station mostly burned up over the Pacific in 2018. Kosmos 482 is now being closely tracked by international space agencies. Mr Lemmens said that future spacecraft "should be designed in such a way that they can take themselves out of orbit safely, preferably by doing controlled re-entries". ADVERTISEMENT Advertisement This allows for precise predictions of landing locations, reducing the risk of any debris impacting populated areas, thereby protecting people and property while "managing the environmental impact of space debris."
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Soviet-era spacecraft likely to crash back to Earth
Part of a Soviet-era spacecraft is expected to crash back to Earth this week after being stuck in orbit for more than half a century. Kosmos 482 was launched in 1972 as part of a mission to Venus but it never escaped low Earth orbit and separated into four pieces, according to Nasa. One of those pieces, believed to be the lander probe, is expected to re-enter our atmosphere around 10 May and at least part of it could survive the journey without burning up, according to Nasa. There is much we don't know about the re-entry, including where it might land, but even if any of it does survive, 70% of the planet is covered by sea so it is unlikely to cause significant damage. "It's much more likely that you win the lottery than that you get impacted by this piece of space debris." said Mr Stijn Lemmens, Senior Space Debris Mitigation Analyst at the European Space Agency. The lander capsule is a tough, spherical object about a metre wide and weighs nearly half a tonne. It was built to survive the extreme heat and pressure of Venus's atmosphere, meaning it has a robust heat shield and durable structure. This is why experts think it may survive an uncontrolled descent through Earth's atmosphere. The parachute system, originally intended to slow the lander's descent towards Venus, is likely long since degraded after more than 50 years in space. The risk to people on the ground is considered low, but the capsule's projected flight path could see it land anywhere between 51.7° north and south latitude, covering most of the inhabited world. This means it could potentially land anywhere from as far north as London to as far south as the southern tip of South America. Uncontrolled space debris incidents have occurred before. Mr Lemmens explained that the "re-entry of human-made objects into Earth's atmosphere occurs quite frequently," happening weekly for bigger spacecraft and daily for smaller ones. Objects typically burn up in the earth's atmosphere before they reach the ground. China's Long March 5B booster re-entered over the Indian Ocean in 2022, and the Tiangong-1 space station mostly burned up over the Pacific in 2018. Kosmos 482 is now being closely tracked by international space agencies. Mr Lemmens said that future spacecraft "should be designed in such a way that they can take themselves out of orbit safely, preferably by doing controlled re-entries". This allows for precise predictions of landing locations, reducing the risk of any debris impacting populated areas, thereby protecting people and property while "managing the environmental impact of space debris."
Time of India
30-04-2025
- Science
- Time of India
6 rockets launched in less than 24 hours! SpaceX and Amazon's Project Kuiper drive new spaceflight record
6 rockets launched in less than 24 hours In an unprecedented surge of space activity, six rockets lifted off from various global launch sites within a span of just 18 hours between April 28 and 29, 2025. This rapid-fire succession of launches set a new record for the most orbital liftoffs in a 24-hour period, highlighting the fast-growing momentum of the global space industry. These missions involved leading players from both government and private sectors, such as the United States, China, the European Space Agency (ESA), SpaceX , Amazon 's Project Kuiper , and Firefly Aerospace. Most of the launches contributed to the expansion of low Earth orbit (LEO) broadband satellite constellations, while others focused on scientific and technological objectives. Here's a comprehensive breakdown of the launches, their payloads, and their broader significance. Timeline and overview of the 6 rocket launches 1. China's Long March 5B – Guowang Broadband Satellites Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Google Brain Co-Founder Andrew Ng, Recommends: Read These 5 Books And Turn Your Life Around Blinkist: Andrew Ng's Reading List Undo Launch time : April 28 at 4:10 p.m. EDT (2010 GMT; April 29 at 4:10 a.m. local time) Launch site : Wenchang Satellite Launch Center, Hainan Island, China Payload : Batch of Guowang broadband satellites Objective : Build out China's state-owned LEO broadband megaconstellation The first launch kicked off from China using the Long March 5B rocket, carrying payloads for the Guowang project—a Chinese initiative to establish a national satellite internet system. The constellation is a strategic component of China's broader digital infrastructure ambitions. 2. SpaceX Falcon 9 – Starlink Satellites (Vandenberg) Launch time : April 28, 32 minutes after China's launch (approx. 4:42 p.m. EDT) Launch site : Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA Payload : 27 Starlink satellites Objective : Expand the operational Starlink satellite broadband network Shortly after the Chinese launch, SpaceX deployed another batch of its Starlink satellites, reinforcing its position as the leading commercial satellite internet provider. The Starlink network now spans thousands of satellites in orbit. 3. United Launch Alliance Atlas V – Amazon's Project Kuiper Launch time : April 28 at 7:01 p.m. EDT (2301 GMT) Launch site : Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Florida, USA Payload : First 27 Project Kuiper satellites Objective : Initiate Amazon's global satellite internet service Marking a major milestone for Amazon, this Atlas V launch was the debut deployment for Project Kuiper. The Kuiper constellation aims to rival Starlink by delivering high-speed internet access globally, especially in underserved regions. 4. SpaceX Falcon 9 – Starlink Satellites (Kennedy Space Center) Launch time : Approximately 10:30 p.m. EDT, April 28 Launch site : NASA Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA Payload : 23 Starlink satellites Objective : Continue Starlink expansion This was the second SpaceX launch of the day, demonstrating the company's exceptional launch cadence. It lifted off just hours after the Project Kuiper mission, further populating the Starlink network with additional operational satellites. 5. Arianespace Vega-C – ESA's Biomass Satellite Launch time : April 29 at 5:15 a.m. EDT (0915 GMT) Launch site : Guiana Space Centre, Kourou, French Guiana Payload : ESA's Biomass forest-monitoring satellite Objective : Earth observation and climate monitoring This mission was part of ESA's Earth Explorer program. The Biomass satellite is designed to provide critical data on global forest biomass and carbon stocks using a P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR), offering vital information for environmental and climate studies. 6. Firefly Alpha – Lockheed Martin Technology Demonstrator Launch time : April 29 at 9:37 a.m. EDT (1337 GMT) Launch site : Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, USA Payload : Lockheed Martin satellite prototype Objective : Test satellite deployment and technology demonstration This sixth launch marked the sixth flight of Firefly Aerospace's Alpha rocket. Although the liftoff was successful, a malfunction occurred during the separation between the first and second stages, resulting in mission failure and loss of the payload. Significance of the satellite missions Global broadband race intensifies Four of the six launches were directly tied to satellite broadband megaconstellations. These included SpaceX's Starlink, China's Guowang, and Amazon's Kuiper. The urgency to provide fast, global internet access has accelerated satellite production and deployment, leading to frequent and tightly scheduled launches. Scientific advancement The ESA's Biomass satellite serves a non-commercial purpose and emphasizes the importance of using space-based assets to monitor Earth's ecosystems and improve climate modeling. It represents one of the few missions dedicated solely to environmental science in this launch group. New-space players on the rise The participation of Firefly Aerospace underscores the growing presence of smaller commercial space companies aiming to carve out niches in satellite delivery and orbital infrastructure services. While the mission faced a setback, the company's role highlights diversification in space launch capabilities. Record-breaking launch cadence and implications Previous records surpassed The six launches in under 18 hours broke the previous record of four launches within 24 hours. The high tempo reflects improved logistical coordination, rapid rocket reuse capabilities (especially by SpaceX), and the scalability of satellite production lines. Sustained growth expected Industry analysts expect this trend to continue as space-based internet constellations expand and newer missions—both commercial and scientific—continue to crowd the launch calendar. Reusable rockets and modular satellite buses are reducing turnaround times and lowering launch costs. LEO congestion concerns As multiple players add thousands of satellites to low Earth orbit, concerns over orbital congestion and space debris management are intensifying. Coordination between governments and private companies through bodies like the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is becoming increasingly critical. Also read | Airtel recharge plans | Jio recharge plans | BSNL recharge plans
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The new space race is raining more garbage from the sky. We're not doing enough to stop it
In the early morning hours of February 19, 2025, a bright object streaked through the skies above western Europe. The mysterious, flaming hunk of metal traveled for several hours before smashing into a warehouse in the Polish village of Komorniki. 'I felt surprised but also a little scared,' Adam Borucki, the warehouse's owner, told the BBC in an interview. 'But ultimately, I'm glad no one was hurt.' After inspection by local authorities and the Polish space agency, officials determined the object's identity: a piece of debris from a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket that had re-entered the atmosphere. This isn't the first time space junk has crashed to Earth. In December 2024, a half-ton piece of space debris flattened trees in a remote village in Kenya. Earlier that same year, a chunk of rocket landed on a North Carolina roof and a discarded space station battery pelted property in Florida. In 2023, fragments of carbon fiber and metal rained down on a Ugandan home. Falling space junk is starting to become a real problem. So how worried should you be about it landing on you? 'The chance of you getting hit is absolutely minuscule,' Ewan Wright, a space sustainability researcher at the University of British Columbia, told Salon. 'But across the whole world, the chances of somebody getting hit is rising to a level where we actually have some concerns about it.' Individually, a person's estimated chance of being struck by space debris is something like one in a trillion. But the odds of debris striking someone on Earth is closer to one in 10,000, as Wright and his colleagues calculated in a 2022 paper published in Nature Astronomy. In fact, in 2002, a young boy in China became the first person to ever be reportedly injured by a piece of a falling rocket (he survived with only minor injuries.) Of course, a direct bodily hit isn't the only hazard of falling space junk. There is a chance that debris could reenter commercial or federal airspace and pose a danger to aircraft, for example. Experts estimate that the world's busiest airports have about a 26% chance each year of being affected by uncontrolled re-entries. Some countries have already had to deal with this — in 2022, Spain and France closed parts of their airspace to avoid a falling Chinese Long March 5B rocket. And such risks, however small, are growing. 'The problem we're facing is that the number of launches is continuing to increase,' says Aaron Boley, an astronomer at the University of British Columbia. That pace shows no sign of slowing down. 2025 is expected to see a record-breaking number of launches, as a new international space race heats up and companies like Starlink, a subsidiary of SpaceX, rush to put internet satellite 'megaconstellations' in issue is that climate change is messing with LEO, according to research published last month in Nature Sustainability. As carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses build up in the dense lower atmosphere, they absorb heat and keep it trapped there. But in the thin upper atmosphere, carbon dioxide can't hang onto its extra heat. This means the upper atmosphere ends up contracting 'like a balloon being placed in liquid helium,' Matthew Brown, a systems engineer at the University of Birmingham in the U.K., explained to Salon. As a result, objects in this region are now experiencing less drag than they did decades ago — which means they are staying up longer, and fewer are completely burning up on reentry. More objects in orbit means more debris with the potential to leave come down unexpectedly. A crowded upper atmosphere could also trigger a phenomenon called 'Kessler syndrome.' In this scenario, pieces of debris crash into one another, fracture into smaller pieces, which then crash into more junk or even functional spacecraft, creating a chain reaction. This cascade goes on until LEO is filled with shrapnel zipping around at intense speed. 'This runaway effect could render entire orbits unusable,' Michele Scaraggi and Rajat Srivastava of the University of Salento in Italy told Salon in an email interview. So what can we do to address the hazards posed by space debris? Some space agencies and private companies have begun designing their craft to ablate — break apart and burn up — in the atmosphere at the end of their life, an approach called 'design for demise.' While great in theory, the issue is that optimal design is difficult to predict, especially given Earth's changing atmospheric composition. 'If they're wrong, then they have 10,000s of pieces of space debris that are going to come down and hit the ground,' says Wright. SpaceX, for instance, designs most of its Starlink satellites to disintegrate upon reentry. But some of those de-orbited satellites don't seem to fully ablate or burn up. One landed on a farm in Saskatchewan, Canada last year. And even craft that burn up completely might cause harm; researchers are concerned that the aerosolized metal could be damaging the ozone layer, reversing years of progress in protecting it. Another option is managed re-entry. The idea behind this is to guide large pieces of re-orbiting debris to a predetermined location, usually a spot in the Pacific Ocean. Managed re-entry is often used for large craft on short missions, but it can be very difficult to arrange for long-term missions. Some agencies are also making plans to remove debris directly from LEO. Proposed approaches include snatching debris with a robotic arm, scooping it up with giant nets, attracting it with magnets and spearing it with harpoons. Though there are currently no removal efforts active in orbit, the European Space Agency has plans to launch its first clean-up mission, called ClearSpace-1, in 2028. 'These initiatives are critical stepping stones,' Scaraggi and Srivastava said. Finally, there is ground-based emergency management. Counties in a few U.S. states, including those with rocket launch sites like California, Texas and Florida, have drafted emergency response plans for falling space debris. However, this is an area that needs to be developed much further, both in the U.S. and globally. As climate change intensifies and new launches clutter our planet's orbit, we're almost certainly going to see more debris crash back to Earth. Humanity is going to need to come up with ways to prevent these re-entries from becoming casualties. This will involve, perhaps, being more intentional and strategic about how we send things into space. 'We definitely want to ensure that we have continued and safe access to outer space,' Boley says. 'But the promise of prosperity is not permission for recklessness.'
Yahoo
10-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
The Risk of Space Junk Hitting Planes Is Rising in The Era of SpaceX
We've yet to see a falling piece of space debris strike an airplane, but if it happens, the consequences would almost certainly be catastrophic – and according to a new study, the danger posed to planes is only rising. The researchers behind the study, from the University of British Columbia in Canada, looked at worldwide flight data to model the distribution of planes in the sky, then compared this to records of uncontrolled rocket body reentries. The increasing risk is also being driven in part by the mass deployment of satellites, like SpaceX's Starlink, which will eventually reenter our airspace. As more satellites and rockets are sent into orbit, and more planes take to the skies, the chances of a hit are growing, the researchers found. Even though we have the technology to track falling space debris to some extent, that's still a major concern. "The highest-density regions, around major airports, have a 0.8 percent chance per year of being affected by an uncontrolled reentry," write the researchers in their published paper. "This rate rises to 26 percent for larger but still busy areas of airspace, such as that found in the northeastern United States, northern Europe, or around major cities in the Asia-Pacific region." According to The Aerospace Corporation, the likelihood of a fatal plane collision with an object falling from space was close to 1 in 100,000 in 2021. What's more, even the smallest chunk of a rocket or satellite that's burning up could bring a plane down – making it difficult to guarantee passenger safety. Estimates suggest something as small as one gram could cause damage if it made contact with the aircraft windshield or engine. As the chance of interference grows, so does the probability that parts of airspace will be closed – which then leads to other stretches of sky becoming more congested, or planes getting delayed or canceled altogether. "This situation puts national authorities in a dilemma – to close airspace or not – with safety and economic implications either way," write the researchers. Charting reentry paths for uncontrolled objects is often tricky, which means large areas of airspace need to be shut down as a precaution. We've already seen this happen, as with the Long March 5B rocket body in 2022. There is a solution, the researchers say: those putting the objects in the sky could invest in controlled rocket reentry. While the tech for this already exists, less than 35 percent of launches currently make use of it, leaving the safety burden on the aviation industry. Efforts continue to improve safety both inside and outside Earth's atmosphere, but they require buy-in from government agencies and private companies. It shouldn't take a disaster to force action to be taken. "Over 2,300 rocket bodies are already in orbit and will eventually reenter in an uncontrolled manner," write the researchers. "Airspace authorities will face the challenge of uncontrolled reentries for decades to come." The research has been published in Scientific Reports. Mysterious Radiation Belts Detected Around Earth After Epic Solar Storm The Pandemic Did Not Affect The Moon After All, Scientists Say Scientists Simulated Bennu Crashing to Earth in September 2182. It's Not Pretty.
