Mars Buttfield-Addison 🛰Pilots on Facebook are sharing stories + images of #SpaceJunk breakups and alerts they have seen. Surreal that this is seemingly a regular occurrence in #Aviation now.
RedstoneLP2@TheMartianLife "...we hope"
Seris 
@RedstoneLP2 @TheMartianLife That and "Some expected to burn off". I always thought space junk re-entry was pretty harmless
@admin
Depends on the size. Smaller stuff usually just burns up, but bigger stuff may reach the ground
(See: several farmers standing near space debris on a field)
@TheMartianLife
Depends on the size. Smaller stuff usually just burns up, but bigger stuff may reach the ground
(See: several farmers standing near space debris on a field)
@TheMartianLife
StarkRG@RedstoneLP2 @admin @TheMartianLife It depends on a lot of things, the size, the shape, the material, how everything is put together, etc. Ideally, the manufacturers would design things in such a way that maximises re-entry vaporisation, but I don't think that's always the case (the only motivation is the possibility of the operating company being responsible for retrieving the object from private property and possibly paying for any repairs).
Kid Mania@StarkRG @RedstoneLP2 @admin @TheMartianLife
☠️ The brutal reality:
IF something from Space X burning up in the atmosphere was to take out a plane, a big plane with over 200 souls on -board, people would freak out, Elon would do literally nothing (except maybe tweet), WE would all do nothing, then it would go back to business as usual.
Right?
Rob Bos@clintruin
Not to defend Musk, but the chances of that happening are so miniscule that i don't think it would justify any action. You're in way more danger crossing a suburban street.
SpaceX is only the launch provider for most large satellites at this point, starlink sats are super tiny and very likely to burn up. Second stages can hit the ground but mostly have predictable ground tracks. Those are the most likely to cause problems, not satellites.
@StarkRG @RedstoneLP2 @admin @TheMartianLife
@rbos @StarkRG @RedstoneLP2 @admin @TheMartianLife
My point had NOTHING to do with the "chances of that happening".
My point had everything to do with the reaction --not just of Musk -- but also the general public...
No matter how "miniscule" the possibility of an actual occurrence.
Hence my giant IF at the beginning of the post.
@clintruin Fair enough. I'm just saying that doing nothing *is* the responsible choice in that situation. Some things are just so low-probability that preparing for them isn't cost-effective. The hypothetical owner of a satellite that hits an airplane should have insurance, of course, but the insurance company would probably eat it and move on.