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<\/p>\nThe Chinese space station module Tiangong-1 completed a destructive uncontrolled re-entry on Sunday. The event was tracked by numerous global tracking assets \u2013 many predicting different entry points \u2013 as they fine-tuned the entry corridor likely resulted in some of the vehicle\u2019s hardware surviving the fiery return.<\/p>\n
The first key element of China\u2019s space station ambitions, Tiangong-1 was launched by a Long March 2F\/G in late September 2011.<\/p>\n
During its mission, Tiangong-1 was visited by three Shenzhou spacecraft during its first two years of planned operations.<\/p>\n
This included the uncrewed Shenzhou 8, which successfully tested docking procedures, a major milestone for the Chinese and their future goals of sending crewmembers to the Station.<\/p>\n
With that milestone achieved, Shenzhou 9 then docked in June 2012 with its crew of two taikonauts. A third Tiangong-1 rendezvous and docking mission occurred with Shenzhou 10, which docked in June 2013 \u2013 including China\u2019s first female astronauts, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping.<\/p>\n
Such was the success of Tiangong-1, officials opted to extend its mission by two years \u2013 while they launched a second module, Tiangong-2, in 2016.<\/p>\n
This allowed for docking and refueling objectives to be conducted, while the second module \u2013 still in orbit \u2013 is an advancement on the first, all building towards the launch of Tianhe core module in the coming years, via the new Long March 5B rocket, which will allow for the construction of an advanced Chinese space station.<\/p>\n
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Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 docking \u2013 via CCTV<\/p>\n
However, the decision to extend Tiangong-1\u2019s lifetime may have contributed to what is now an uncontrolled return for the module, after the required telemetry link was lost and Chinese controllers were left without the ability to conduct a planned disposal burn to precisely send the craft into a designated corridor over an unpopulated area of the Pacific ocean.<\/p>\n
Only until the final hours \u2013 possibly with just one to two orbits remaining \u2013 was tracking assets be able to work out where the spacecraft will re-enter, which allowed for the calculation of the debris footprint.<\/p>\n
SpaceX (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Amazingly, even with mintues remaining, officials were predicting the Atlantic Ocean, only for the Chinese to then say it was the Pacific Ocean, which was later confirmed by US officials who had initially got the information wrong.<\/p>\n