China’s The two-module spacecraft Tiangong-1 — translated to «Heavenly Palace» — lost contact with China’s space agency in March 2016 and is expected to crash to earth somewhere on April 1.
China’s out-of-control Tiangong-1 (translated as «Heavenly Palace») space station, carrying a «highly toxic» cargo, is expected to come crashing down to earth sometime on April 1st — however just where it will hit is still up for debate.
Over the past day, the European Space Agency, the California-based Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies (CORDS) and other space junk watchers have begun to predict a more specific time when Tiangong-1 will likely break up into fireballs shooting across the sky, perhaps leaving some smaller bits to impact the surface.
As CNET reports, CORDS has zeroed in on early April 1, while the US military’s Joint Space Operations Center predicts an earlier re-entry at 5:52 p.m. PT Saturday, March 31, with a margin of error of 14 hours. ESA took a pass on declaring a specific time, saying instead it expects Tiangong-1 to reenter between early morning PT Saturday and Sunday Morning.
If you’d like to track the nine-ton school bus-sized station full of «highly toxic» chemicals, you can do so with the following real time tracker courtesy of Satview (please click on the image for the interactive map):
… or at the following websites:
N2YO.com
Stuff in Space (select TIANGONG 1)
Meanwhile, the Aerospace Corporation has put together an excellent video on the reentry:
Weighing in at 18,750 lbs, the two-module spacecraft — which as noted above means «Heavenly Palace» — lost contact with China’s space agency on March 21,2016 after the completion of its extended mission, which included a six year service life that saw two manned missions to perform experiments for the larger multiple-module Tiangong station.
