6 ms·
In hindsight, the fact that it was probably a balloon and not space debris makes a lot of sense. Something falling from space would only spend a few seconds at
by celeritascelery 11mo ago
In hindsight, the fact that it was probably a balloon and not space debris makes a lot of sense. Something falling from space would only spend a few seconds at most in the zone where airplanes cruise but a weather balloon would be there significantly longer. Makes the chance of collisions much higher.
- blackcatsec 11mo agoI mean, it also makes sense considering space debris would have hit that plane with significantly more force than a busted window.
- Polizeiposaune 11mo agoReally depends on how big the space debris was and whether it had slowed to terminal velocity (the speed where the force of gravity equals the force of drag). I'd rather be in a plane hit by 1 gram piece of space debris than in one that hit a 1kg sandbag hanging from a balloon.
- throwaway48476 11mo agoThere are thousands of flights every day for decades. There's going to be a collision at some point.