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First Chinese Space Station Coming Back to Earth

posted by cmn32480 on Sunday September 25 2016, @11:56AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-goes-up... dept.

hubie writes:

China confirmed in a press conference, that Tiangong-1, their first space station put into orbit in 2011, will re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere sometime in late 2017. There seems to be some uncertainty in when it will re-enter the atmosphere, which leads one to believe that the station is not under orbital control and that it will come back to Earth in the same manner that Skylab did in 1979.

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  • (Score: 2, Disagree) by Dunbal on Sunday September 25 2016, @02:51PM

    by Dunbal (3515) on Sunday September 25 2016, @02:51PM (#406271)

    No, they shot it down because there were fears that its hydrazine fuel tanks could survive the landing intact, and hydrazine is highly toxic and not something you'd like a) to fall near inhabited land b) on crops or c) into the hands of terrorists. The intercept was to make sure the tank was ruptured.

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