CHATTER AWAY: Overnight Open Thread

Here’s the latest on the Chinese space station:

The doomed Tiangong-1 is now expected to fall to Earth around 7:25 p.m. EDT (2325 GMT) on Sunday (April 1), with a window that could stretch into early Monday, officials with ESA’s Space Debris Office said in an update today (March 31). The time for Tiangong-1’s uncontrolled descent remains highly uncertain, in large part due to how quiet the sun has been. If the sun is active, its energy pushes more strongly against Earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere then balloons and becomes denser at higher altitudes. The density of the atmosphere affects the drag against Tiangong-1’s orbital speed. As Tiangong-1 loses energy due to drag, it falls towards Earth.