Chinese satellite return to earth

[Quickstatus]

Chinese satellite return to Earth

Predicted reentry between latitudes 43deg N and 43 deg S meaning most of the populated areas of the world and Australia though not Northern Europe. Higher probability of reentry in the N rather than S. Its oo big to burn up before hitting Earth

Others say it will fall somewhere in Europe around night time 1 April and 2 April UTC (AEST is UTC + 10)

Not April Fools apparently.

I don’t recall commercial aircraft ever being struck by falling space debris or meteor.
Would be very interesting to witness from 35000 feet

Tiangong-1 reentry updates

@jb747 , @AviatorInsight : At cruising altitude how far away is the horizon?

 

[Happy Trails]

Best carry an umbrella, just in case.

 

[Quickstatus]

Apart from using an umbrella, the ESA has some other methods:
Reentry and collision avoidance

Anatomy of a debris incident


Update:
Broke up NW of Tahiti around 1015am sydney time today.

 

[jb747]

I don’t recall commercial aircraft ever being struck by falling space debris or meteor.

I think you're pretty safe.

At cruising altitude how far away is the horizon?

The radar horizon is the square root of your height (in feet) * 1.23, nautical miles. So at 40,000' the radar horizon is about 245 miles away.

Calculator here: Horizon calculator - radar and visual

 

[Quickstatus]

Ah thanks for a proper mathematical solution.

Visually how far do you think you can see at 40000 feet

 

[jb747]

Rather depends on what you're looking for. Mt Everest is easily identified at a couple of hundred miles. In daylight, some objects can be picked out at 100 miles or so. At night much more. In the right light, the better eyes that I used to have, could find airliners at 50 miles.

 

[Quickstatus]

Rather depends on what you're looking for. Mt Everest is easily identified at a couple of hundred miles. In daylight, some objects can be picked out at 100 miles or so. At night much more. In the right light, the better eyes that I used to have, could find airliners at 50 miles.

Extreme Ross Photography

This guy takes some nice photos while piloting the Dragon Lady at 70000 feet