An uncontrolled Chinese space station weighing at least seven tonnes is set to break up as it hurtles to Earth on or around April 1, the European Space Agency has forecast. Some debris from the Tiangong-1 -- or “Heavenly Palace” -- spacelab will likely fall into the ocean or somewhere on land, but the chances of human injury are vanishingly small, said Stijn Lemmens, an ESA space debris expert based in Darmstadt, Germany. In March 2016, however, the space station ceased functioning. ‘Design for demise’With ground teams no longer able to ignite its engines, Tiangong is “expected to make an ‘uncontrolled reentry’,” the ESA said. The US Space Surveillance Network tracks some 23,000 debris objects travelling at speeds of up to 28,000 kilometres per hour.

Source: Hindustan Times March 28, 2018 03:22 UTC