Tiangong-1

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China Gambles, Wins With Massive Rocket Re-Entry

Long March 5B burned up over the Maldives

(Newser) - China's space agency said a core segment of its biggest rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere above the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and that most of it burned up early Sunday, per the AP . Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracked the tumbling rocket part, said on Twitter, “An...

Chinese Space Station Crashes Back to Earth

Tiangong-1 burned up over the South Pacific

(Newser) - China's plummeting space station crashed to Earth late Sunday without harming any Earthlings: The country's space agency says the Tiangong-1 burned up on re-entry and the remaining debris fell into the southern Pacific Ocean northwest of Tahiti. The US military's Joint Force Space Component Command confirmed the...

Plummeting Chinese Space Lab May Hit Nearly Anywhere in US

Debris from the Tiangong-1 was expected to crash into Earth on Sunday night

(Newser) - The dead Chinese space lab that's been crashing to Earth since at least 2016 is projected to finally smash through the atmosphere and into land (or sea) sometime Sunday night. Per NPR , the European Space Agency believes that what remains of Tiangong-1 after its burn up during re-entry will...

Defunct Space Station Due to Fall to Earth This Weekend

Tiangong-1 is believed to be out of control

(Newser) - China's defunct and reportedly out-of-control Tiangong 1 space station is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere sometime this weekend. It poses only a slight risk to people and property on the ground, since most of the bus-size, 8.5-ton vehicle is expected to burn up on re-entry, although space...

Space Lab Is Likely Only Weeks From Falling

New estimates suggest re-entry in late March or early April

(Newser) - China's "Heavenly Palace" will tumble to Earth within weeks, experts say. Two new estimates suggest the Tiangong-1 space lab will fall from space in an uncontrolled re-entry in late March or early April. According to a "highly variable" estimate put forth Tuesday, the European Space Agency predicts...

New Prediction for When, Where Space Station Will Crash

Experts say there isn't anything to worry about ... probably

(Newser) - A 9.6-ton Chinese space station will likely crash somewhere on Earth around March, according to a new prediction made Wednesday by Aerospace. And while that sounds terrifying, a member of the team behind the prediction tells the New York Times the Tiangong-1 "most probably will not harm anyone,...

China's Space Lab Could Fall at Any Time

Most will burn up in atmosphere, but chunks of it could land on Earth

(Newser) - Look up and you might see a bird, a plane, or 200-pound chunks of China's space lab falling from the sky. Actually, the chance of that last one is remote, but technically possible, and now more than ever. China acknowledged last year that its Tiangong-1 lab, launched in 2011,...

China Seems to Have Lost Control of Its Falling Space Lab

Tiangong-1 should burn up in the atmosphere sometime in 2017

(Newser) - In 2017, watch for falling space labs. China announced last week that its first space lab, Tiangong-1, would be falling back to Earth—somewhere—sometime in the second half of next year, Xinhuanet reports. According to Popular Mechanics , the lack of specifics in the previous sentence seems to confirm the...

China Now 3rd Country to Complete Space Feat

Crew to spend 6 days on space lab after successful docking

(Newser) - China has officially joined the US and Russia as just the third country in the world to have completed a manned space docking, reports CNN . Earlier today the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft docked with the orbiting Tiangong-1, the next step in the Middle Kingdom's ambitious five-year plan for space exploration. The...

China Readies for 1st Manned Space Docking

Milestone comes 6 months after China announced 5-year space plan

(Newser) - Yet another advance is in the works for China's space program. China will try for its first manned space docking later in June, its space agency announced today, according to the New York Times . The Shenzhou 9 will dock with the Tiangong 1 space lab "sometime in June,...

China Launches Space Lab to America the Beautiful

Broadcaster blunders at Tiangong-1 launch

(Newser) - Weird. China took its first step toward building a space station last night and while the launch of the unmanned Tiangong-1 space lab went smoothly, there was a major slip-up in the propaganda department. State broadcaster CCTV's launch coverage included an animation of the module docking with a crew...

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