The first space station of China National Space Administration (CNSA) will fall back to earth very soon. The space lab named Tiangong-1 is coming back without completing its mission. It was hailed as a potent political symbol of China’s growing power, but is expected to crash land late 2017 or early 2018.
The Chinese space agency launched its space lab Tiangong-1 in 2011. The Space lab was the nation’s first step towards its ultimate goal of developing, building, and operating a large Space Station as a permanent human presence in Low Earth Orbit. The country’s space agency referred to the station as the “Heavenly Palace” and conducted a range of missions, some of which included astronauts.
In September 2016, scientists at China’s CNSA space agency admitted they have lost control of the lab, saying that it would be crash landing on Earth.
The Chinese space agency is clueless about the location at which the debris will fall because the capsule is expected to be thrown around by the wind as it comes down. This news raised concerns over people on Earth.
According to space experts much of the debris will burn up as it travels through the Earth’s atmosphere, but particles weighing more than 100kg could make their way through and land on Earth’s surface. Scientists are expecting the particles to drop into the sea. But it’s still possible that it could crash on land near residences.
The station’s orbit is steadily decaying, and in recent weeks it has started to fall faster. The Chinese space agency has been tracking the space station and vowed to issue warnings if there are any imminent collisions. Even a slight push from the weather could send it from one continent to the next, the danger can only be predicted 6-7 hours before impact.
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