Tiangong-1 tracker: the Chinese space station on collision course with Earth

The Tiangong-1 space station taking off in 2011
FP/Getty Images
Ella Wills27 March 2018

A Chinese space station on collision course with Earth is set to re-enter the atmosphere over the Easter weekend.

The Tiangong-1 spacecraft, known as "Heavenly Place", will likely fall between March 30 and April 2, according to the latest prediction by the European Space Agency.

Australia, North and South America, China, the Middle East, Africa and parts of Europe all stand a chance of being hit when the space station makes its dramatic crash landing.

Space fans can track the exact position of the satellite as it makes its final orbits around Earth via this live map on SatView, which shows the spacecraft travelling at around 28,000 Km/h.

And as the spacecraft begins its descent, the Virtual Telescope Project will broadcast a live online feed of the Heavenly Place from March 28.

The stream will start at 1pm (GMT), although this time is subject to change.

A website is tracking the satellite live as it makes its final orbits around Earth
SatView

Re-entry will take place anywhere between 43º North and 43º South, which means the satellite won't be falling on the UK.

Latest predictions by the European Space Agency suggest the satellite will crash to Earth over the Easter weekend
European Space Agency

China has not released any information on the station and experts are predicting that some of it will survive all the way to the Earth's surface.

Tiangong-1 is China's first space station and it was launched in 2011 as part of the country's push to become a space superpower.

It was launched without a crew but was designed to be habitable - it was visited by astronauts including China's first female astronaut Liu Yang in 2012.

In 2016, China told the United Nations that the spacecraft had completed its mission however not long after that rumours began to circulate that the country’s space agency had lost control of the aircraft.

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