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Yet another Chinese space station could be about to plunge back to Earth.
Three months after Tiangong-1 made a comeback in our atmosphere, her sister job, Tiangong-2, seems about to do the same thing.
But unlike Tiangong-1, Tiangong-2 could have a more controlled descent.
The spacecraft was observed tumbling about 60 miles (95 km) to the surface of the planet.
He returned to his normal orbital height, sparking speculation that China will prepare to decommission the ship in the near future.
China hopes to avoid an embarrassing repetition of the events of April, when the space station Tiangong-1 out of control of the nation came back to Earth with a bang
publish an official statement on the latest situation.
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China's second experimental space station dropped its orbit. Earth. Tiangong-2 (artist's impression) was observed in free fall about 95 km from the surface of the planet, staying there for ten days
The maneuvers appeared thanks to the orbital information made public by the Command American strategy.
Its Joint Space Operations Center, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, states that the station has gone from an altitude of between 380 and 240 miles (380 and 386 km) to between 292 and 297 km on June 13th.
He stayed at this altitude for ten days, before returning his original height above the planet.
Experts believe this suggests that China is preparing to decommission the station in a more controlled manner than Tiangong-1.
Tiangong-1 became uncontrollable, with little certainty as to when and where he could land.
China's controlled push tests, lowering and elevating the satellite to order, indicate a desire to lower the station to a lower level.
Although it is not known exactly when they plan to do so, an area known as the "satellite graveyard" appears to be a likely landing place.
This is a region of the South Pacific. Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center, told SpaceNews: "It seems likely that lowering the Tiangong-2 orbit is the first step to dispose of it in any meaningful way. security.
To track the orbital trajectory of the satellite over Earth in real time, visit Satview
China has launched its second experimental space station in September 2016. The successful launch (photo) was seen as a sign of the growing sophistication of the country-backed space program, which also plans to send a mission to Mars in the coming years [19659024] WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THE TIANGONG-2 SPACE STATION IN CHINA?
Tiangong-2 is China's second experimental space station. It was launched on board a Long March 2F rocket on September 15, 2016.
It measures 34 ft (10.4 m) long and 14 ft (4.2 m) in diameter and has a mass 19,000 pounds (8,600 kg).
The module is used to "test systems and processes of mid-term stay and refueling," according to the Chinese State
It conducts experiments in anticipation of a Chinese space station scheduled for 2022.
In October 2017, Chinese astronauts spent a 30-day stay in the resort – China's longest stay in space.
The out-of-control Tiangong-1 space station exploded on Earth at 27,000 km / h. On April 2, 2018, and especially disintegrated, it reached the atmosphere of the planet
On April 2, 2018, on the coast of Tahiti, it decomposes on Earth and disintegrates by touching the atmosphere of the planet
The defunct Chinese space station Tiangong 1 has flown to Earth and returned to the atmosphere before landing. It is represented here in an undated radar image
The disappearance of the nine-tonne space station had been the subject of scientific speculation for months, amid fears that large parts of it could fall near population centers. to predict where the facility, which is roughly the size of a school bus, would descend but in the end it returned to the Earth's atmosphere on the South Pacific.
The craft returned to the atmosphere around 8:15 am Beijing time (12:15 GMT) and the "vast majority" had burned during the school year, said the Space Engineering Bureau inhabited from China at the time .
Authorities said that all the debris from the space station would carry hydrazine – a highly toxic fuel – and warned people to refrain from touching it or not. inhale his fumes.
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