Chinese spacecraft hurtling toward Earth

Charlotte Ikonen reports at The Daily Star,

China’s Tiangong-1 space station is going to smash into Earth. And space boffins have revealed it has the highest chance of crashing into cities along a narrow strip around latitudes of 43 degrees north and south.

This includes a number of highly populated cities including New York, Barcelona, Beijing, Chicago, Istanbul, Rome and Toronto.

The doomed 8.5-tonne craft, which has been hurtling towards Earth since control was lost in 2016, is believed to contain dangerous hydrazine.

The Tiangong-1 spacecraft launched in 2011, with the aim of using the craft to set up a larger space station.

…Much of the spacecraft is expected to burn up in the atmosphere upon re-entry.

But owing to the station’s mass and construction materials, there is a possibility that some portions of it will survive and reach the surface.

In the history of spaceflight, no casualties due to falling space debris have ever been confirmed.

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