Space station’s death dive near

TASMANIAN star gazers could get a glimpse tonight of an out-of-control space station that has been falling rapidly towards Earth for the past few days.

China’s Tiangong-1 space station is about 150km above the Earth and is due to enter the atmosphere soon, with estimates placing re-entry some time today or even tonight, Australian time.

While most of the space station will burn up on reentry at 26,000km/h, there is a chance some debris will survive.

The debris is expected to fall somewhere between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south (Tasmania).

However, most of the debris is tipped to fall into the Pacific Ocean, and Southern Cross Observatory astron- omer Shevill Mathers said it was unlikely any would hit the state.

Mr Mathers said 40 per cent of the station would make it through the atmosphere.

There was a chance the station would pass over Tasmanian skies tonight before it disintegrated.

It will take three minutes to pass — west to east — over the horizon.

Tiangong-1 weighs about 8500kg and was launched in September 2011 into a Leo orbit about 400km above the Earth.

It was visited by a series of spacecraft, including the manned Shenzhou 9.

Communication with the station was lost in March 2016 and in September that year China’s space agency officially declared the station out of control.

Since then, Tiangong-1 has been in a slow descent towards Earth’s atmosphere.