This morning, April 2, China's space station fell into the South Pacific Ocean.
According to the China National Space Administration (CNSA), the country's Tiangong-1 space station re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at 8:15 a.m. on April 2.
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| Tiangong-1 space station. |
The agency said the Tiangong-1 space station fell into the South Pacific Ocean. Scientists believe it fell off the southwestern coast of Brazil.
Most of the Tiangong-1 space station burned up as it re-entered the atmosphere, but some debris is still at risk of falling to Earth's surface. According to CNN, the Tiangong-1 space station broke into pieces and burned up about 70 kilometers above the ground.
Chinese officials said they had not received any information indicating that Tiangong-1 caused damage when it fell.
The 12-meter-long Tiangong-1 space station was launched into orbit in September 2011. It is considered a prototype for China's ultimate goal - a 20-ton space station expected to be launched in 2022.
This 8.5-ton space station "stopped working" on March 16, 2016, and Chinese scientists do not know why.
According to Alan Duffy, a researcher working for the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University of Technology (Australia), the secrecy surrounding China's space exploration missions makes it more difficult for analysts to assess the level of danger of an uncontrolled space station falling to Earth.
