Since then, Tiangong-1 has gradually been dropping lower and lower as it rubs up against the wisps of the upper atmosphere. Earlier this month, a solar storm appears to have moved up the timetable for the crash by a few hours. Radar measurements indicate that Tiangong-1 is tumbling, about once every three minutes, said Stijn Lemmens, an analyst at the E.S.A.’s space debris office in Darmstadt, Germany. Skylab, America’s first space station, weighed nearly 10 times as much as Tiangong-1 and when it crashed in 1979, pieces landed in Western Australia without incident. Only one person is known to have been hit by space debris.

Source: New York Times March 26, 2018 21:13 UTC