Chinese Rocket Debris Could Fall On West Texas Saturday

The Chinese are in the space race. Unfortunately, they're not doing a very good job of keeping their space debris from hitting populated areas.  On Saturday one of their rockets is set to crash into earth. The trajectory will bring it right over West Texas.

The Aerospace Corporation has been tracking the rocket first launched by the Wenchange Space Launch Site in China on July 24th.  Even before it was launched their were predictions the rocket would fall back to earth in a blaze of glory.  Or it will fall in a blaze, as in hitting some innocent person or their property.

The descent of this rocket booster could no doubt due some damage.  It weighs 25.4 tons. Aerospace Corporation issued a statement Tuesday saying: "Due to the uncontrolled nature of its descent, there is a non-zero probability of the surviving debris landing in a populated area.  Over 88% of the world's population lives under the reentry's potential footprint".

The latest estimates have ruled out many areas, but unfortunately West Texas is not one of them.  Of course the odds are astronomical that it won't land here.  If it does, do you get paid?

Basically, if a piece of space junk from China landed on your house, our government would have to make a claim for compensation through diplomatic channels and then pay you, if they chose to make a claim at all.

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There's not a lot you could do to prevent total annihilation of a 25 tons space booster rocket hits your home or worse you.  There's no large reinforced steel umbrellas or hard hats strong enough to prevent grave danger. Monitor the Aerospace Corporation twitter feed to keep up with the latest.

In reality, you probably have a better chance of winning the Mega millions jackpot than being hit by this space junk.  But, if you're luck runs like mine, well, you know.