A Chinese space station fell into Earth’s atmosphere and landed in the Pacific Ocean. When radar stations lost track of it, people realized that it was coming back to earth. There were very small chances that it could hurt someone, but no one was hit. The Chinese lost control of the space station in March 2016 and could not bring it back to earth safely. But because it was moving toward earth so quickly, agencies weren’t sure when Tiangong-1 would hit, but April 1 was the suggested date, and debris would cover thousands of miles. Because of its size, 40% of the mass was supposed to make it past the atmosphere, but it isn’t the biggest satellite launched to space.
The article was written by Kenneth Chang on April 1, 2018 for the New York Times. The article is important because many people were worried about the space station and getting hit, but no one was hurt and people aren’t in danger of the space station anymore. The article is significant because it shows how far we’ve come since the Space Race, now many countries have spacecraft and are capable to launch them, but sometimes accidents happen. The article can be compared to the Challenger failure in 1986, there was a problem and it couldn’t be fixed. While the damage from the Challenger mission far outweighs the Tiangong-1 space station, it was a failure.
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