SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 27 April 2024, Saturday |

A tracking site that predicts where the out-of-control Chinese missile will fall

Experts are tracking the trajectory of the Chinese missile, which is scheduled to enter the atmosphere again within the next two days, or at the earliest on Saturday, according to what the Pentagon announced last Wednesday.

As it nears entering the atmosphere, it is likely that more information regarding when and where it fell to Earth will become clear.

Until then, estimates will remain “wildly mixed”, according to the Pentagon.

But Space-Track, a website run by the Space Control Squadron, a branch of the US military that tracks debris in space, said in a tweet Friday that the missile will enter Earth’s atmosphere on Saturday at around 11:13 pm.

According to the coordinates in the tweet, the Chinese missile debris is likely to fall over Turkmenistan.

“These estimates will continue to vary greatly” until it becomes clear when the missile will reach the atmosphere, “Space Track” said.

Thursday’s forecast indicated that the debris of the missile would fall in the central Indian Ocean.

The “Business Insider” website transmitted a tweet to the astronomer at Harvard University, Jonathan McDowell, in which he said that the missile is currently orbiting the Earth in an orbit at a speed of about 18 thousand miles per hour, while descending towards the Earth at a speed of 0.3 miles per hour.

He added that if the margin of error in the estimates reaches half an hour, then the fall location could change dramatically. For its part, the Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit company funded by the United States, predicted that the missile will enter the atmosphere on May 9 at 3:43 am UTC (Sunday, 11:43 pm EST).

So far, the only thing is certain, is that the missile will enter the atmosphere again within a latitude of 41.5 degrees north and south of the equator, which covers an area stretching from New York City in the north to New Zealand in the south.

The US Space Command, a branch of the US military, said in a statement Tuesday that “the precise entry point of the missile into the Earth’s atmosphere can only be determined within hours of its return,” while the Space-Track page on Twitter revealed that it would publish daily estimates.