China's space station to enter Earth’s atmosphere on April 2
China's Tiangong-1 spacecraft will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere at some point today, China's space agency said in a statement yesterday.
China's Manned Space Agency did not specify a time when it expects the craft to re-enter the atmosphere.
Many experts believe much of the craft is expected to burn up during the re-entry and no one knows for sure where debris from the spacecraft may land.
It is believed the craft is more than 200km from earth today.
South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT said yesterday it expects the Tiangong-1 to re-enter Earth's atmosphere sometime between 6.26am to 2.36pm Singapore time today , according to the Yonhap news agency.
The 10.4m-long Tiangong-1, or "Heavenly Palace 1", was launched in 2011 to carry out docking and orbit experiments as part of China's ambitious space programme, which aims to place a permanent station in orbit by 2023.
MISSION EXTENDED
The spacelab was originally planned to be decommissioned in 2013, but its mission was repeatedly extended.
China had said its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere would happen in late 2017 but that process was delayed, leading some experts to suggest the space laboratory was out of control.
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