Hurtling Chinese space station to free fall today

China's Tiangong-1 space station which is hurtling towards Earth, will re-enter the atmosphere today and is expected to fall anywhere from Australia to the US, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) said. Tiangong-1 orbited at an average altitude of 167.6 km. The space lab will mostly be burnt up in the atmosphere and is highly unlikely to cause any damage on the ground, according to an article published by CMSEO recently.

As it continues to fall, the main structure of the spacecraft will be burnt or explode from increasing heat and friction. It normally disintegrates at an altitude of about 80 km, it said. The fragments will keep burning and most of them will be dissipated in the air. Only a small amount of debris will reach the ground, and will float down at a very slow speed due to their small mass, it said. The European Space Agency forecast the space lab's re-entry for about 7.25 am China time on Monday. Based on its current trajectory, scientists have said the space station could land anywhere from Australia to the US.

2011
Year Tiangong-1 was launched

2013
Year the lab completed its main missions

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