Malaysians excited about the prospect of their collective schadenfreude coming to the sudden end when China’s Tiangong-1 space station potentially crashing down on them eating brunch, from space, may want to hedge their bets elsewhere.
The Chinese government had earlier alerted international organizations that they were planning to decommission the station, and to watch out for falling debris re-entering the atmosphere.
They will also be monitoring the situation and issuing a forecast of their predicted time of re-entry. Heads. Up.
Angkasa, the National Space Agency has told concerned citizens and space geeks (hi!) alike that the likelihood of debris falling onto Kuala Lumpur is about 0.0000699% right now.
Your odds at beating a crew sifu aunties at mah jong look better, and won’t leave you crying “apocalypse” while the Aerosmith song from Armageddon plays in your head.
The odds of it hitting somewhere, anywhere, in Malaysia are slightly better, with a 0.09% chance of flying debris falling to Earth at the speed of gravity.
Intergalactic final frontier lovers, and those anxiously wanting to track flying pieces of metal, can go to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee for orbital status, and other salacious space info at http://www.cmse.gov.cn/.
Final predictions of the time and place of Tiangong-1’s crash will be provided by China for the UN secretary-general and United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
ESA, Nasa, Jaxa, CNSA, and other space agencies are also observing and monitoring the situation.
In short – relax, it’s probably nothing. Now, go forth and prosper!
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