Tassie alert on falling space lab

TASMANIA falls inside the high-probability impact zone of debris from an out-of-control space station due to fall to Earth in coming weeks.

China has lost control of its Tiangong-1 space station, which is predicted to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere in the weeks around early April.

While most of the space station will burn up on re-entry, there is a chance a small amount of debris will survive and impact the ground.

Although debris is more likely to fall into the ocean, some inhabited places are inside the high-probability impact zone, including parts of the USA, New Zea land , China, South America, the Middle East, Spain, Southern Africa and Tasmania.

Launceston Planeta r ium ’s Martin George said the probability of being hit by incoming space debris was “exceedingly remote”.

“This is not the kind of thing that people need to be worried about,” he said.

“It’s very uncertain at the moment as to when the space craft will come down. The earliest estimated date is about March 24, and it could come down in the weeks following that.

“The southernmost part of its journey [place it] roughly over Hobart.”

Russia’s space station Mir fell to Earth in 2001, and the United States’ Skylab fell in 1979, raining debris over parts of Australia’s southeast.