Published August 3, 2022
Newsweek quoted John Crassidis, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, in a story reporting that debris believed to have fallen from a Chinese space rocket landed near villages in Malaysia and Indonesia on Saturday.
Incidents of space debris falling to Earth are “getting more frequent,” and that should be a matter of some concern, Crassidis said. He pointed out that since most of the Earth is covered by ocean, most debris hits water. However, an uptick in space junk hitting land will likely coincide with the recent increase in space tourism. “It’s starting to get to the point where places should start worrying about this stuff. There have been some studies that say if this keeps up, there’s going to be a 1-in-10 chance in the next 10 years that somebody will be hurt.”
