China’s first prototype space station is to crash to Earth over Easter scientists expect, amid rumours that the Chinese space agency has lost control of the craft. Known as Tiangong-1 (meaning “heavenly palace” in Chinese) the craft is expected to drop out of orbit over the next week and plummet through Earth’s atmosphere at a speed of seven kilometres per second. Some scientists fear that debris could survive the atmosphere and land anywhere 43 degrees either side of the equator, though most predict the bus-sized spacecraft is most likely to burn up upon re-entry. Reseachers have warned that a number of the spacecraft’s parts – including its dense rocket engines – would be unlikely to burn up, leaving chunks of the craft to crash towards the planet’s surface.
What you need to know about China’s space station falling to Earth
Via www.msn.com03/26/2018 9:35 AM
