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China has brought its Tiangong-2 space station closer to the Earth's upper atmosphere before relaunching it even higher.
The US military observed that the Chinese space station had been deliberately "desorbed" from a height of 380 km to about 295 km on June 13. But over the weekend, it was again brought back to its higher and safer orbit.
Astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Astrophysics Center, Jonathan McDowell, said on Twitter: "OK, it's weird … I wonder what it's all about?
Earlier, he had commented that the lower orbit could mean that Tiangong-2 was "probably about to be de-orbited".
Its sister space station – Tiangong-2 – went out of control in 2016, which has led to many speculations about the possibility of raining deadly metal debris on densely populated centers. It finally dropped in April of this year without incident.
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Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011. Tiangong-2 is much younger, having only been launched in September 2016.
Both were placed in orbit to test life support facilities, as well as mooring and replenishment mechanisms for its 20 tonne modules. These are apparently models for a modular Chinese space station to be launched in the early 2020s.
Tiangong-2 is approximately 10.5 m long and 3.4 m wide. It weighs about 8.6 tons. In 2016, two astronauts stayed on board for about 30 days. This is China's longest stay in the space up to now.
The Space Component Command of the United States Strategic Command Joint Force and the Joint Space Operations Center highlighted the downward movement of Tiangong-2, which occurred on 13 June.
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China itself, however, remains silent about the maneuver. The Beijing state media first denied that there was a problem with Tiandong-1. It was only later that he participated in the international discussion about the implications of his fate.
China is not allowed to participate in the experiments of the International Space Station. This has prompted him to start building his own orbital outpost, Tianhe, in 2020. Weighing up to 100 tons, the station should be operational by 2022 when two experimental modules will be added. at his main habitat installation.
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Beijing says he hopes to keep three teams on the station at once.
Its main feature will be a Hubble telescope, operating near the space station. When the telescope needs repair, refueling or recalibration, China hopes to dock it to the space station for the necessary work.
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