[dotnet00]

Someone should've suggested to them that they were originally meant to be disposed in a controlled manner via a

[Wrong] ~Russian vehicle that was delayed (they opted for uncontrolled reentry because the batteries were risky to keep around at the ISS, the controlled disposal vehicle was delayed and they had figured the batteries would be vaporized during reentry)~

Japanese vehicle, the crew for the disposal being delayed due to issues with a Russian vehicle, so they could instead blame the Russians in some manner. It'd be tricky to rephrase, but that hasn't stopped the media previously.

Luckily it wasn't SpaceX, else every mainstream outlet's headline would be some form of "Elon Musk, owner of Starlink, drops space debris onto unsuspecting Florida man, nearly kills son"

[pavon]

Close. They were meant to be disposed via controlled entry on a Japanese craft, but the astronauts that were going to do the work were delayed due to issues with Soyuz, and they couldn't keep the Japanese craft around indefinitely due to other conflicts.

[dotnet00]

Ah that makes much more sense! I recalled that it was Soyuz that was delayed, but had been thinking that if they were disposing they'd probably do it via Progress and so, was a bit confused. I remembered that the reason for the uncontrolled disposal was the Soyuz delay and just went with that.

[lenerdenator]

> unsuspecting Florida man

is there any other kind?

[dylan604]

> unsuspecting Florida man

why the need for the redundancy?