INCOMING! China's 21 metric ton rocket launcher accidentally went into orbit - and will come back down soon

The rocket launched, but part of the launcher that weighs 21 tons and is about the size of a ten story building, was not supposed to go with it. It is now descending back to Earth, anywhere South of NY and North of NZ, within the next two weeks. Heads up!

Because the Earth is made up mostly of ocean, chances are it will land — somewhere — in the water. But there is also the chance it could fall onto an inhabited area, including any city from New York in the northern hemisphere to Wellington New Zealand, in the southern.

It is currently doing laps of the Earth every 90 minutes — that's traveling at almost 5 miles per second — and getting closer and closer with each orbit. Because it is moving so fast, it is almost impossible to predict the point it will re-enter the atmosphere and hurtle to Earth: A difference of seconds up there means a difference of hundreds of miles down here.

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