Tiangong-1 - better known as the ‘Heavenly Palace’ - was China’s first ever space station to be launched. Launched on September 11th, 2011, it was more of a prototype to test the stability, control and effectiveness of the technology; rather than something that was meant to last for centuries. The space station weighed about 8.5 tons (7711.07 kgs) and is 34 feet (10.36m) in length. The dimensions and information accumulated over time was later used by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) to develop Tiangong-2.
In March of 2016, China lost control of this space station. What this meant was that no one had any idea as to when and where it would re-enter the earth’s atmosphere and potentially what it would crash into. Tiangong-1 was been cruising back to earth since the orbital decay phenomenon - an occurrence where a space station revolving around a planet falls back into the planet’s atmosphere. The most prominent reason being high-speed collisions with air particles floating in space.
Multiple nations placed predictions about the date Tiangong-1 would reenter the atmosphere. However, despite the fact that they were supported by scientific analysis, none were able to pinpoint exactly when and where it would happen.
On the 1st of April 2018, at around 5:16 pm (PST) (8:16 am SGT) the spacecraft dropped into the South Pacific Ocean. Thankfully harming no one during the crash.
The real attention-grabber in this whole debacle was that the chance of getting hit by space debris is one in a trillion. It has been said that over a hundred and seventy pieces of debris surround the Earth’s atmosphere, yet so far there have only been two cases of someone getting hit or injured. Both of these cases occurred in the United States. The first case recorded was in 1954 in Alabama where a space rock came through an individual named Ann Hodges roof and hit her in the stomach leaving a rather large sized bruise. Luckily, Hodges didn't incur any long-term injuries. The second case happened in 1997 where a piece of broken down space rock hit Williams on the shoulder. This piece was allegedly much smaller and lighter than that of Hodges and so no harm was incurred a slight bruise formed.
Either way, Tiangong-1 stirred up much controversy and amusement - a massive space station fell into the Earth, without harming a single person. Seeing as other recorded incidents of this have happened, with far smaller pieces of debris, which resulted in injuries, people could only begin to imagine what would happen if an entire space station came crashing down into a civilised region.
Tiangong-1 represents a new age for China’s space travels and studies. As not only represent a major part of the Asian subcontinent, however, it also marked a significant period for Asiatic space travel and the developing science behind it.
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