China’s Tiangong-1 space lab has been orbiting Earth since September 2011, but it is slated for an uncontrolled re-entry through Earth’s atmosphere in late January or later, officials have said. Most of the vehicle is expected to burn up during the re-entry.
The uncrewed space lab, which weighed 18,740 lbs. (8,500 kilograms) at launch, was used for a total of six successive rendezvous and dockings with three different spacecraft, including the Shenzhou-8 (uncrewed), Shenzhou-9 (piloted) and Shenzhou-10 (piloted). [Gallery: Tiangong-1, China’s First Space Laboratory ]
The Tiangong-1 spacecraft was part of China’s human space exploration activities, but it stopped working properly on March 16, 2016. Although Tiangong-1 has maintained its structural integrity, officials do not expect to regain control of the space lab before re-entry.
Tiangong-1 is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere somewhere between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south latitude. Researchers monitoring the spacecraft have found that it is slowly dropping in altitude; however, the exact time and location at which Tiangong-1 will plunge toward Earth cannot yet be predicted. Debris from the re-entry is not expected to cause any harm or damage. China will track the spacecraft more closely as it gets closer to re-entry.
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