China’s experimental space lab to re-enter earth’s atmosphere

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ China’s experimental space lab Tiangong-2 will have controlled descent from its orbit and re-enter the earth’s atmosphere to fall into the Pacific Ocean, the country’s official space agency said.

All of the space lab’s assigned tasks have been finished. It is scheduled to fall out of orbit and re-enter the atmosphere under the supervision of ground control on Friday, China’s Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) said, without giving a specific timetable. The agency said that the spacecraft and the instruments on it are functioning well, CMSEO said.

Preparations for the controlled re-entry of Tiangong-2 into the atmosphere are proceeding steadily as planned. China will timely report the information about the spacecraft after it re-enters the atmosphere to fulfil its international obligations, it said.

Most of the spacecraft will be burnt up in the atmosphere and a small amount of debris is expected to fall in the safe sea area in the South Pacific (160-90 degrees west longitude and 30-45 degrees south latitude), CMSEO said on July 13.