Topline Part of a rocket launched by the Chinese space agency is slated to make a rapid return to Earth late Saturday night, but while it’s still unclear where and when the hurtling 100-foot-long booster section will land, most experts think the risk of hitting a population center is low. [UPDATE: The rocket re-entered Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean — more details are available here.] A Long March-5B Y2 rocket carrying the core module of China’s space station, Tianhe, blasts off from … [+] the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site on April 29. VCG via Getty Images Key Facts The Long March-5B rocket was launched last week carrying a module for a Chinese space station, but unlike in most rocket launches, the core booster entered Earth’s orbit at high speed instead of falling back to Earth immediately, and gravity is now pulling it back toward the planet. The booster should re-enter Earth’s atmosphere Saturday evening: The U.S. government-funded Aerospace Corporation expects it to re-enter at around 11:02 p.m. Eastern time (give or take two hours), and the U.S. military’s Space Command is predicting a re-entry between 9:11 and 11:11 p.m. The rocket section is moving so quickly that it’s tough to predict where it will re-enter: The Aerospace Corporation expects it to re-enter the atmosphere over the South Pacific Ocean, but U.S. Space Command says the entry point is above the Mediterranean Sea, and earlier guesses placed it near New Zealand, Madagascar and Spain. Don’t worry: Researchers say the odds… Click below to read the full story from Forbes
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