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SCMP Reporter

Tiangong-1, China’s experimental space lab, re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at around 8.15am Hong Kong time (00.15 GMT) on Monday, China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) said. 
It re-entered in the central region of the South Pacific, the CMSEO said.
The space lab was mostly burnt up in the atmosphere, according to the monitoring and analysis of the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre and relevant organisations, Xinhua reported.
Tiangong-1’s watery grave in the remotest place on Earth

Tiangong-1 was launched on September 29, 2011 and ended service in March 2016. It has docked with Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, and undertaken a series of tasks, making important contributions to China’s manned space programme. 
China’s ‘space dream’ remains a Long March to the moon
The eight-tonne space lab’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere had previously been predicted to happen some time “between March 31 and April 4, 2018”, according to the China Manned Space Engineering Office on March 26. 


The March 26 announcement was the first time Chinese authorities admitted that the spacecraft was out of control in its fall back to Earth. The exact timing of the space lab’s return to Earth was fine-tuned over the following days. 
Beijing had said there was no need for concern as it was unlikely to do any damage on the ground. 

NW of Tahiti - it managed to miss the 'spacecraft graveyard' which is further south! pic.twitter.com/Sj4e42O7Dc
— Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 2, 2018

Dr Zhu Jin, director of Beijing Planetarium, said the chances of anyone being hit by a piece of falling debris were lower than those of winning the lottery. The Aerospace Corporation put the odds of someone being hit at less than one in a trillion. 
China dismisses suggestions its Tiangong-1 space station is out of control
The Tiangong-1, which means “Heavenly Palace 1” in Chinese, was launched into orbit on September 29, 2011. It was to carry out docking and orbit experiments as part of China’s ambitious space programme aimed at placing a permanent station by the early 2020s. 
The 10-metre-long craft, about the size of a school bus, cost hundreds of millions of yuan to build. The laboratory comprised several modules and was able to support up to three astronauts for two weeks at a time. 
In its lifetime it was involved in six rendezvous and docking missions with manned Shenzhou spacecraft, and made “significant contributions to the development of China’s manned space mission” space authorities said. 
On March 16, 2016, Tiangong-1 terminated its data service, officially ending the mission and starting its orbital decay. 
Nasa’s 85-tonne Skylab space station is the largest spacecraft ever to make an uncontrolled return to Earth. Several large pieces of debris from it crashed into the Australian town of Esperance in 1979.

Here’s how our final #Tiangong1 prediction stacks up against the actual reentry data. We had an error of 14 minutes, which was well within our window of +/- 1.7 hours. Thanks for following along with us this past week. pic.twitter.com/t5kDEJa0jM
— TheAerospaceCorp (@AerospaceCorp) April 2, 2018



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Space

China’s Tiangong-1 space lab finally returns to Earth, burning up over South Pacific

Tiangong-1, China’s experimental space lab, re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific on Monday morning

An artist's depiction shows Tiangong-1, the Chinese space station that will plummet to Earth soon. (Courtesy Aerospace Corp.)

A photo made available by the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques (Fraunhofer FHR) on March 21 2018 shows a radar image of Tiangong-1 taken at an orbital height of 270km. Photo: EPA

Out of control Chinese space lab Tiangong-1 could fall to Earth on Sunday

Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is heading back to Earth and officials in the US state of Michigan, which is one of many places where it might land, are taking no chances. Photo: Aerospace Corp

FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2011, file image taken from video from China's CCTV via AP Video, China's Shenzhou-8 spacecraft is docked with the orbiting Tiangong-1 space station. China’s defunct and believed out-of-control Tiangong 1 space station is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere sometime in the coming days, although the risk to people and property on the ground is considered low. (CCTV via AP Video, File)

FILE - This undated file photo shows researchers installing China's first space station module Tiangong-1 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China's Gansu Province prior to its launch on Sept. 29, 2011. China’s defunct and believed out-of-control Tiangong 1 space station is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere sometime in the coming days, although the risk to people and property on the ground is considered low. (Color China Photo via AP, File)

Chinese astronauts take silkworms for zero-gravity spin in Tiangong-2 space lab

A screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre shows a simulated picture of the automated docking between the Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft and the orbiting space lab Tiangong-2. Photo: Xinhua

China dismisses suggestions its Tiangong-1 space station is out of control

A 3D animation of China’s Shenzhou-8 spacecraft docks with Tiangong-1 in this computer simulation. Some experts have suggested the space lab, which was originally planned to be decommissioned in 2013, might be out of control. Photo: Xinhua

(120624) -- BEIJING, June 24, 2012 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on June 24, 2012 shows the screen at the Beijing Aerospace Control Center showing the manual docking between Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and Tiangong-1 lab module being conducted. China's first manual space docking between Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and the orbiting Tiangong-1 lab module has been successful Sunday. The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft and Tiangong-1 lab module has been conjoined again. (Xinhua/Zha Chunming) (ry)

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Tiangong-1, China’s experimental space lab, re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific on Monday morning


Science