The Chinese space station Tiangong-2 dives near the Earth: will it crack like its predecessor?

The Chinese space station Tiangong-1 made news after the Chinese authorities revealed that it would fall back to Earth. In April, the China Space Engineering Bureau announced that the experimental space laboratory has swept the Earth, although most of it has burned during the autumn.

Strange maneuver

Now, the successor of the condemned space station, Tiangong-2, has also been observed to display strange behaviors. On June 13, Tiangong-2 fell suddenly from its normal 242-mile orbit to 183 miles. Unlike his predecessor, however, the spacecraft does not return to Earth, as it later returned to its original position.

Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysical Center, revealed that the spacecraft returned to its normal orbit after spending 10 days in the lower orbit.

The unexplained maneuver has led to speculation that China may be on the verge of decommissioning the spacecraft in a more controlled manner than Tiangong-1.

McDowell said that it is possible that the lowering of the Tiangong-2 orbit marks the first step in its safe disposal. Tiangong-1 escaped control but fortunately returned to Earth safely.

McDowell also believes that the space station's orbit was probably lowered by two burns early on June 13 and then returned to a higher orbit by two more burns.

Phil Clark, who observes Chinese space activities, has been following Tiangong-2's orbit since its launch. He noted a recent relative lack of burns to elevate the station's orbit, before last week's activity.

"In part, China does not want Tiangong-1 to repeat itself," Clark said.

Tianhe 1 and Tiangong-2

We do not know what is the reason behind this strange maneuver. However, nearly 900 pounds of propellant are still on the space station, which confirms the idea that China performs safe deorbiting tests.

"For this specific propulsion system, perhaps they would like additional data on orbit tests – particularly to qualify the longevity of the system (measuring performance after 2 years in orbit)," McDowell tweeted. "Perhaps you plan to use the same propulsion design on Tianhe."

Tianhe 1, is the core module of the Tiangong-3 space station, the first multi-module space outpost of China that the country plans to complete in 2022 with three major modules in total. China plans to launch the first module around 2020.

Tiangong-2 was launched in 2016 and served as a test bench for technologies that China wants to integrate into Tianhe. In 2016, two Chinese astronauts spent 30 days in orbit aboard the spacecraft, as part of China's longest human space mission.

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