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Related: About this forumChinese Space Station's Crash to Earth: Everything You Need to Know
By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | March 26, 2018 08:46am ET
China's first prototype space station, Tiangong-1, will come crashing back to Earth between March 30 and April 2 in an uncontrolled re-entry, give or take a few days, according to the latest forecast by the European Space Agency. Read on for a primer on the space lab and its mission, as well as links to Tiangong-1 stories, galleries and infographics.
Last Updated: 03/26/2018 15:53
Tiangong-1, whose name translates as "Heavenly Palace-1," launched without anyone aboard on Sept. 29, 2011. It settled into an orbit about 217 miles (350 kilometers) above Earth a little lower than the International Space Station, whose average altitude is 250 miles (400 km).
The 9.4-ton (8.5 metric tons) Tiangong-1 is about 34 feet long by 11 feet wide (10.4 by 3.4 meters) and features 530 cubic feet (15 cubic m) of habitable internal volume. [China's Tiangong-1 Space Lab in Pictures]
Tiangong-1 consists of two components: a "resource module," which contains the space lab's solar-power and propulsion systems, and an "experimental module" that accommodated astronauts and scientific work. The experimental module features two beds and some exercise gear, but it doesn't have a bathroom or kitchen; these latter facilities were provided by the spacecraft that visited Tiangong-1.
And other spacecraft did visit. That was the focus of Tiangong-1's successful mission, after all; the space lab was lofted primarily to test the docking and rendezvous technologies that China will need to build a bona fide space station in Earth orbit, which the nation plans to do by the early 2020s.
More:
https://www.space.com/40076-chinese-space-station-crash-to-earth-guide.html?utm_source=sdc-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20180326-sdc
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Chinese Space Station's Crash to Earth: Everything You Need to Know (Original Post)
Judi Lynn
Mar 2018
OP
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,494 posts)1. Thanks, Judi Lynn.
I'll be watching Space.com next week for updates. I see the Germans are tracking this thing using a specialized radar and they will be helping update the trajectory as it starts to descend.
no_hypocrisy
(46,185 posts)2. Reminds me of July 11, 1979 when
Skylab crashed to Earth.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)3. Did you see this part?
Tiangong-1 won't be the biggest spacecraft ever to fall uncontrolled from the sky. In July 1979, for example, NASA's 85-ton Skylab space station burned up over the Indian Ocean and Western Australia. Some big chunks survived the fall, and the Australian town of Esperance famously sued NASA $400 for littering.
Sancho
(9,070 posts)4. We are ready in Florida!!!