Remote crash site for China’s space lab
‘It would have constantly changed its position as it came down, making it almost impossible to give an accurate position’
CHINA’S 8.5-ton Tiangong-1 space lab burned up in the sky over the South Pacific yesterday, meeting its fiery end as far away from land as possible.
The bus-sized module crashed to Earth at 1.15am, China’s space authority said, with the “vast majority” burning up as it re-entered the atmosphere and wrong-footing space officials who were tracking its final journey.
By sheer chance, the remaining debris that made it to the Earth’s surface hit the Pacific not far from a watery spacecraft graveyard known as Point Nemo. The remote corner of the Pacific Ocean is the furthest place from land on Earth – more than 1,000 miles from the Pitcairn Islands to the north and Antarctica to the south.
The disintegration of Tiangong-1, or Heavenly Palace, sparked sadness among enthusiasts of the space station which was first launched in 2011.
The remoteness of the impact location also denied sky-watchers the illuminated spectacle many had hoped for.
Observers have been captivated by the demise of the 34ft-long space lab, with many guessing where precisely the craft might hurtle through the atmosphere at speeds of up to 17,000mph.
The official line from both the Chinese and US space agencies was the rather vague location of the “South Pacific”, while astronomers said Tiangong-1’s final resting place would be about 100 miles north-west of Tahiti, not far from the international dateline.
However, China’s space agency appeared to have been confused in the final countdown to descent. It had first predicted that impact would take place in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil, before switching moments later to the South Pacific.
Jiao Weixin, a professor at Peking University’s School of Earth and Space Sciences, said it would have been impossible to pinpoint the exact location where the remains of the tumbling craft would fall until the last moments.
“Making a number of guesses of different locations and times for descent is very natural,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “The location of re-entry for Tiangong-1 was dependent on many factors as it was not piloted. It would have constantly changed its position as it came down, making it almost impossible to give an accurate position.”
Global space agencies have for decades used Point Nemo, a vast stretch of water, as a dumping ground for titanium fuel tanks and other space debris. Only about 10 per cent of the spacecraft was expected to survive re-entry.