Airplanes Face Growing Risk of Being Hit During Rocket Reentry
On May 11, 2020 a deadly threat flew from Los Angeles to New York City in under nine minutes. It was a 20-tonne Chinese Long March 5B rocket body passing around 60 miles overhead.Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their ViewJust 15 minutes later, the rocket body re-entered the atmosphere and broke into pieces, including a 12-metre-long pipe that crashed into a village in the Ivory Coast.The rocket body had completed its mission and been abandoned in orbit, left to return to the surface in…