Falling space station nothing to worry about, China says

Chinese authorities have allayed fears of the possible damage that its falling space station may cause when it eventually enters earth from space.

The China Manned Space Engineering Office said on its WeChat social media account that falling spacecraft do “not crash into the Earth fiercely like in sci-fi movies, but turn into a splendid (meteor shower) and move across the beautiful starry sky as they race towards the Earth”.

They said the atmospheric drag would tear away the external components of the craft when it gets to an altitude of around 60 miles.

The heat will grow and friction will cause the main structure of the lab to burn or blow up, with most of the parts dissolving in the air.

Read also: NASA spots strange gigantic formation on Mars

There have been fears that the Tiangong-1 space station, or “Heavenly Palace”, will turn into a spectacular fireball as it enters Earth’s atmosphere sometime during the Easter long weekend possibly causing great damage when it makes an impact while it crashes on earth.

Earlier predictions had revealed that the space station will begin its fiery descent into Earth’s atmosphere somewhere in a window between 30 March and 3 April – possibly around 1 April.

It was also revealed that some debris from the fireball of the space station could hit the Earth anywhere in a band between 43 degrees north and south of the equator.

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