China’s space lab Tiangong-2 falling back on Earth! Here’s what will happen on its re-entry

The space lab has worked in the orbit for over 1,000 days, much longer than its 2-year designed life, according to official media reports here. China’s experimental space lab Tiangong-2 will have controlled descent from its orbit and re-enter the earth’s atmosphere to fall into the Pacific Ocean, the country’s official space agency said.

Preparations for the controlled re-entry of Tiangong-2 into the atmosphere are proceeding steadily as planned. China will timely report the information about the spacecraft after it re-enters the atmosphere to fulfill its international obligations, it said.

Most of the spacecraft will be burnt up in the atmosphere and a small amount of debris is expected to fall in the safe sea area in the South Pacific (160-90 degrees west longitude and 30-45 degrees south latitude), CMSEO said on July 13.

Tiangong-2, an improved version of Tiangong-1, is China’s first space lab launched on September 15, 2016. The space lab has worked in the orbit for over 1,000 days, much longer than its 2-year designed life, according to official media reports here.

China plans to launch its permanent space station by 2022.

Comprising an experiment module and a resource module, the space lab has a total length of 10.4 meters, the largest diameter of 3.35 meters, and a take-off weight of 8.6 tonnes.

It has functions of rendezvous and docking with the Shenzhou manned spaceship and the Tianzhou cargo spacecraft, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China has carried out a series of scientific and technological space experiments and tested the in-orbit propellant refueling technology on Tiangong-2.