It’s Down — China’s Tiangong-1 Reenters
China’s Tiangong-1 space station reentered this evening Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), apparently harmlessly, over the Pacific Ocean.
China’s CGTN television news service reported that the small 8.5 metric ton space station reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 8:15 am Beijing Time April 2 (8:15 pm April 1 EDT) over the Pacific Ocean. The Joint Force Space Component Command (JFSCC) of U.S. Strategic Command agreed with just a one minute difference saying reentry was at 5:16 Pacific Daylight Time (8:16 pm EDT). (Actually, they mistakenly said Pacific Standard Time–PST–when PDT was meant.)
#BREAKING China’s #Tiangong1 space station re-entered Earth’s atmosphere at 8:15 a.m. BJT (0015GMT), expected to land in central area of southern Pacific pic.twitter.com/JhcecgRSrQ
— CGTN (@CGTNOfficial) April 2, 2018
UPDATE: #JFSCC confirmed #Tiangong1 reentered the atmosphere over the southern Pacific Ocean at ~5:16 p.m. (PST) April 1. For details see https://t.co/OzZXgaEX0W @US_Stratcom @usairforce @AFSpaceCC @30thSpaceWing @PeteAFB @SpaceTrackOrg pic.twitter.com/KVljDALqzi
— 18 SPCS (@18SPCS) April 2, 2018
Tiangong-1 was China’s first space station. Launched in 2011, it was visited by two three-person crews in 2012 and 2013. China’s second space station, Tiangong-2, very similar to Tiangong-1, was launched in 2016 and visited by one crew.
China is now focused on building a larger, 60 MT space station composed of three modules. It hopes to complete construction by 2022.
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