China's Tiangong-1 space station 'out of control' and will crash to Earth

[adroth]

China's Tiangong-1 space station 'out of control' and will crash to Earth
Tuesday 20 September 2016 22.03 EDT

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/21/chinas-tiangong-1-space-station-out-of-control-crash-to-earth

China’s first space station is expected to come crashing down to Earth next year, fuelling concerns that Chinese space authorities have lost control of the 8.5-tonne module.

The Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace” lab was described as a “potent political symbol” of China’s growing power when it was launched in 2011 as part of an ambitious scientific push to turn China into a space superpower.

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

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[adroth]

Tiangong-1: Chinese space station will crash to Earth within months
Pieces weighing up to 100kg could make it to the surface, says expert, when out-of-control 8.5-tonne laboratory breaks apart in the atmosphere

Michael Slezak

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/13/tiangong-1-chinese-space-station-will-crash-to-earth-within-months

Friday 13 October 2017 20.43 EDT First published on Friday 13 October 2017 01.08 EDT

An 8.5-tonne Chinese space station has accelerated its out-of-control descent towards Earth and is expected to crash to the surface within a few months.

The Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace” lab was launched in 2011 and described as a “potent political symbol” of China, part of an ambitious scientific push to turn China into a space superpower.

It was used for both manned and unmanned missions and visited by China’s first female astronaut, Liu Yang, in 2012.

But in 2016, after months of speculation, Chinese officials confirmed they had lost control of the space station and it would crash to Earth in 2017 or 2018. China’s space agency has since notified the UN that it expects Tiangong-1 to come down between October 2017 and April 2018.

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[Ayoshi]

Tiangong-1: Defunct China space lab comes down over South Pacific | BBC

It re-entered the atmosphere around 00:15 GMT on Monday, China's Manned Space Engineering Office said.

Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011 to carry out docking and orbit experiments.

It was part of China's efforts to build a manned space station by 2022, but stopped working in March 2016.

What do we know about where it came down?
The rather vague "above the South Pacific" is the line from space officials.

US specialists at the Joint Force Space Component Command said they had used orbit analysis technology to confirm Tiangong-1's re-entry.

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Why the national security space community is studying the Chinese space station that just crashed into the Pacific | c4isrnet.com

A Chinese space station known as Tiangong-1 made an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere on Sunday, breaking up over the Pacific Ocean and mostly burning up during descent.

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The Department of Defense confirmed Tiangong-1 reentered the Earth’s atmosphere over the southern Pacific Ocean at approximately 5:16 p.m. (PST) on April 1, according to a press release from U.S. Strategic Command’s Joint Force Space Component Command. DoD relied on its Space Surveillance Network, which includes sensors and optical radars, to track the space station.

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Tiangong-1’s demise was also carefully recorded by researchers at the Aerospace Corporation, seeking to gain valuable information from the 9-ton spacecraft as it hurtled towards Earth. The Air Force relies heavily on analyses performed by the Aerospace Corp., a federally funded not-for-profit research center that provides engineering advice on the service’s space programs.

One reason Aerospace researchers were watching Tiangong-1 so closely Sunday is to improve prediction models. Each re-entry event offers Aerospace researchers more data for their ever-evolving models of the upper atmosphere of the Earth. Tiangong-1 was the first space station to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere since Russia’s Mir station returned in 2001, making it a particularly noteworthy event. These prediction models allow researchers to help inform decision makers when objects approaching Earth are potentially hazardous.

A radar image of Tiangong-1, the Chinese space station that re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Sunday. (Fraunhofer Institute FHR via AP)