China’s Tiangong-1 Space Lab Has Made Its Fiery Return to Earth

The eight-tonne Tiangong-1 “mostly” burnt up above the vast ocean’s central region at 8:15 am (0015 GMT), China’s Manned Space Engineering Office said, moments after predicting a slightly later re-entry over the Atlantic. It was created to be a manned lab and a demonstration for the larger Tiangong station.

Just for a gentle reminder, Tiangong-1 weighed about 18,753 pounds at the time of launch.

If someone had been in a nearby ship, he or she would have seen the estimated 10 percent to 40 percent of Tiangong-1 that likely survived re-entry careening through the sky, on fire and still in formation, Thompson said. Anyone who suspects they have encountered debris from the space station should report it by calling 911 and stay at least 150 feet away from it. The ship climbed to an orbit of 217 miles above the Earth, only slightly lower than the International Space Station at 250 miles. “It’s a kind of romance created by science and technology”, Bai recalled.

The new superpower is looking to finally catch up with the USA and Russian Federation after years of belatedly matching their space milestones.

Another wrote: “Goodbye Tiangong-1”.

“It was very bright and moving very fast. It’s time for us to say goodbye to Tiangong-1”, said Yu Jun, an enthusiastic stargazer.

May a year ago, China suddenly surprised the United Nations by saying that Tiangong-1 has ceased functioning.

With China pushing for a permanent station in orbit by 2023, the Tiangong-1 was part of the process to carry out docking and orbit experiments.

SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN- It was a fiery end to what was once one of China’s highest-profile space projects. Put more simply: The space around Earth is becoming a junkyard.

Since then China has sent men and women into space with increasing regularity. The ship’s design lifetime was only set for about two years, according to Space.com, but was kept up in orbit for observational work.

A second space lab, Tiangong-2, was launched in 2016. Living in space was also tested by the Chinese space agency aboard the “heavenly place”. Later reports narrowed down the crash to March 31-April 1. China plans to start in 2019 the construction of a space station consisting of several modules, which is scheduled to conclude in 2022. It was occupied by two separate crews of three astronauts, or taikonauts, each – a mission in June 2012 included China’s first female astronaut, Liu Yang.

According to Chinese analysts by 2024, Chinese space station will be the only one in operation as Mir is set to complete its life span by that time.