What We Know About China’s Falling Space Lab

Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011 and is making an uncontrolled descent.

Tiangong-1 was China’s first space lab. Launched in 2011, the lab ceased functioning in 2016. Now, it is making an uncontrolled descent, which means researchers don’t know exactly where it will fall. Most of the lab, which weighs 8.5 metric tons according to Quartz, will burn up as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, but some small fragments might still make it to Earth. They are expected to land between the latitudes of 43ºN and 43ºS, which is partially covered by ocean but does include countries like the US, Brazil, Spain and China itself. You can track the fall of the space lab through the European Space Agency, who is providing re-entry updates every day or two on its blog. The posts include the lab’s potential landing zone, its altitude changes, and the re-entry window. They suspect it will re-enter between March 30 and April 2. You can also check out China’s Manned Space Engineering Office’s daily announcement on the average orbiting height of the lab. Researchers are also keeping watch. Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded US space-research organization, has a dash that updates every few minutes with the lab’s current position and orbit and predicted time to re-entry. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard University, recommends Heavens-above, a satellite tracking site recommended by Jonathan McDowell. The site tells you when you can see Tiangong-1 passing in the sky above your city, and which direction it’s moving in. McDowell is also tracking it via Twitter, so you can follow along there.

The InsideHook Newsletter.

News, advice and insights for the most interesting person in the room.