Chinese space station will fall to earth in 2017

China's space agency has confirmed that the Tiangong-1 space station will fall to Earth at some point in late 2017, but it is unsure if it will be able to control its burn-up.

China's Tiangong-1 space station - Photo: Adrian Mann/Bisbos.com

According to Xinhua News Agency and Space website, since last week's press conference, Chinese authorities have almost confirmed what observers have long suspected, that China no longer has control over its Tiangong 1 space station.

China's Tiangong-1 space station has been orbiting the planet for about five years and was recently decommissioned. The Chinese astronauts have also returned to Earth.

At a press conference last week, China said the space station would fall back to Earth at some point in late 2017.

Normally, if a satellite or space station is no longer functional, it is forced to burn up in the atmosphere. This is a form of controlled combustion.

Most satellites returning to Earth will be planned to burn up at sea to avoid endangering humans.

However, it seems that China's space agency is not sure when Tiangong-1 will re-enter the atmosphere, meaning that for some reason it has failed and China is no longer able to control it.

This means that Tiangong-1 will not be able to burn up in a controlled manner.

All we know is that the space station will burn up at some point in late 2017. However, it is impossible to determine when or where it will burn up.

And there is also a risk that debris from the space station could fall into a populated area.

However, the risk from this incident may not be too worrying because most parts of this space station will burn up in the atmosphere, and the remaining parts when falling to the ground will no longer be too dangerous.

According to Tuoitre