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正在向地球袭来的美国失控卫星预计将于9月23日下午坠地。英媒报道称，这枚与大巴大小相似的卫星可能坠落于地球任何地方，而人类的预警时间只有20秒。它向地球进行的速度是每秒8公里，预计其碎片将散落于直径为800公里的区域内。 A defunct U.S. satellite is expected to crash down to Earth Friday, with nobody knowing where or when exactly it will hit. This was unavoidable, a Chinese expert said Thursday. 一颗美国报废卫星将会在周五撞击地球，然而却没有知道这枚卫星具体会在哪里着陆。这是难以避免的——中国专家周四表示。 Pang Zhihao, a researcher from the Chinese Research Institute of Space Technology, told Xinhua that the crash could have been avoided had the satellite been put into a higher orbit, or manipulated to drop in the South Pacific when it had abundant fuel. It would pose no threat to Earth if these measures had been taken. 中国空间技术研究院研究员庞之浩在接受新华社记者专访时说，此次卫星撞地球的麻烦本来可以避免。假使在燃料充足时，将卫星引导到不易坠落的更高轨道，或是操控它坠入南太平洋的航天器“坟场”，就不会有今天对地球的威胁了。 The satellite was deactivated in 2005 as it ran out of fuel and was left orbiting Earth like a big piece of space junk. 这颗卫星于2005年由于燃油耗尽报废，并像一大块宇宙垃圾一样被扔在了飞行轨道上。 | 
