Published: | Updated:

WHAT WAS CHINA'S OUT-OF-CONTROL TIANGOING-1 SPACE STATION?

China lost control of its first ever space station, Tiangong-1, in 2016, just five years after its launch.

The 10.4-metre-long (34ft) spacecraft was left to spiral back toward Earth with no way of anticipating where it would land.

In December 2017, China alerted the United Nations that Tiangong-1 would come down by late March 2018 but could not predict exactly when or where.

It was carrying highly toxic chemicals and could have crashed into a number of highly populated areas, including New York, Barcelona and Chicago, according to researchers' estimated flight paths.

Tiangong-1 came down in the central Pacific Ocean on April 2, 2018, and mostly burned up in the atmosphere upon re-entry.

A second Chinese space station, Tiangong-2, was launched in 2016 after Tiangong-1 went offline, and remains in orbit.

Advertisement

Read articles that feature this panel

China unveils plans to put a new space station into orbit by 2020, and says it will be open for scientists to use from around the world

According to Shi Zhongjun, China's Ambassador to UN, construction is already underway and the craft (artist's impression) will be open for...

Is another Chinese space station about to plunge back to Earth? Nation’s Tiangong-2 craft drops 60 miles to orbit strangely close to our...

Experts from the US Strategic Command's Joint Space Operations Center, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, monitored the drop in altitude...

Look out! Second Chinese space station set to fall to Earth next year (but officials say Tiangong-2 will undergo a 'controlled deorbit')

China is planning to bring its second space lab back to Earth in July 2019 in a 'controlled destruction', the country's space agency has...

Most watched News videos