Look up!

At any point it seems that the world is surrounded by space junk … those bits of hardware that have boosted rockets and people into space that have not fallen back towards the earth and burned up in re-entry. They have to be small enough to burn up in re-entry though and there is apparently a piece of Chinese rocket is spiralling out of control towards earth – all 30-metres and 22.5 tonnes of it. Under international (should that be interplanetary) guidelines, rockets are supposed to return to earth in a controlled way. The Chinese rocket will not. A report on the ABC News site says no-one really knows where the Long March 5B will come down just that it will probably come down at lunchtime this coming Sunday – give or take a day. The last time this happened - yes, another rocket – the prototype of the one in question – fell to Earth in the Atlantic Ocean and dumped a 12-metre long piece of debris near an African village – luckily no-one was injured. You have to wonder if there’s a dollar or two to be made if you happen to be lucky enough to be near it when the Long March 5B falls to earth and lucky enough not to be damaged by it. The U.S. Skylab which had a “controlled” return to Earth in 1979 left a substantial debris field, including pelting Stan Thornton’s home in Esperance WA with bits of space station. He grabbed some and hopped the first plane from there to the offices of The San Francisco Examiner – it had offered a $10,000 prize to the first person to deliver a piece of debris to them within 72 hours of the crash. They paid up even though they may not have expected to get any takers on their offer especially from Australia!