(News.com.au) China’s defunct and reportedly out-of-control Tiangong-1 space station is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere sometime this weekend.
It poses only a slight risk to people and property on the ground, since most of the bus-sized, 8.5-tonne vehicle is expected to burn up on re-entry, although space agencies don’t know exactly when or where that will happen.
The European Space Agency predicts the station will re-enter the atmosphere between Saturday evening and Monday morning AEST — an estimate it calls “highly variable” — because the ever-changing shape of the upper atmosphere affects the speed of objects falling into it.
The Chinese space agency’s latest estimate puts re-entry between Sunday and Wednesday.
