Tiangong 1, China's broken space station, is expected to hit Earth late next year. China said that they had lost contact with the station and it is still unknown where it will crash. The space station's orbit is said to be decaying 100 meters every day.
Report said that the space station is unusually large and unlike the old satellites that usually burn up in the atmosphere, the broken space station has a greater risk of hitting the Earth's surface. According to science reporter, Ivan Semeniuk that debris might hit any parts of the planet above latitude 43 north - which is most of Canada - and 43 south. The debris might miss Canada, but "most of the populated world" is still within range.
The space station measures 10.4 meters long by 3.35 meters wide. Russia's MIR space station was the last space debris that is near Tiangong 1's size. It is larger at 19 meters long, 31 meters wide and 27.5 meters tall and landed under control in 2003, CTV News reported.
Tiangong 1 successfully worked for its full two-year lifespan. It was supposed to have a controlled re-entry to the Earth but its operation was extended for another two years. No additional trips to the spaceship were made and the purpose of its extended operation was unknown.
The Chinese Space Agency announced that the space station's life has ended in March 2016. They also revealed that they had lost communication with the satellite and in mid-September, the Chinese Manned Space Engineering (CMSE) Office stated that it is out-of-control, as reported by PHYS.
In 1979, NASA's Skylab had the same faith as the Chinese space station. It went through a more dangerous re-entry and became a worldwide phenomenon. Skylab crash parties are held, and the San Francisco Examiner offered $10,000 to the person who could retrieve a piece of debris from the wreckage. A teenager from Australia bagged the prize.
Earlier this month, China launched Tiangong 2 space station as a replacement for Tiangong 1.
