A defunct Chinese space lab hurtled through Earth’s atmosphere today, breaking up into pieces as it headed towards a watery grave in the South Pacific.
Moments after predicting a slightly later re-entry over the Atlantic, China’s Manned Space Engineering Office said, the eight-tonne Tiangong-1 mostly burnt up above the vast ocean’s central region.
Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011 to carry out docking and orbit experiments. It was part of the country’s efforts to build a manned space station by 2022 but stopped working in March 2016.
