China’s space lab to crash to Earth

BEIJING:The pride of China’s space industry, the Tiangong-I or the “Heavenly Palace” lab will come down crashing and burning next year, triggering the possibility

BEIJING:The pride of China’s space industry, the Tiangong-I or the “Heavenly Palace” lab will come down crashing and burning next year, triggering the possibility of its free-falling debris colliding with objects in the sky.

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The Tiangong-1 was launched amid much fanfare in September 2011 and was touted by the state media a China’s symbol of power in the final frontier. But last week’s announcement by a senior official of China’s expanding space program dropped enough hints that it will not be a controlled ending for the space lab as its mechanical lifetime expires.

Last week, officials at a satellite launch centre in the Gobi Desert said that the unmanned module had “comprehensively fulfilled its historical mission” and was set to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere at some point in the second half of 2017.

“Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling,” Wu Ping, deputy director of China’s manned space engineering office, was quoted as saying by official news agency Xinhua.

“Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling,” she was quoted by Xinhua as saying. Wu added it was unlikely to affect aviation activities or cause damage to the ground. Astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told The Guardian it seemed China had lost control of the station and that it would re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere “naturally.”