Chinese Space Station ‪‪Tiangong-1 To Crash on Earth? Countdown Begins With Major Cities Like Mumbai in Danger Zone

The Chinese economy may be rising but their Space Station named Tiangong-1 is falling from the orbit onto the earth. The named Tiangong means "heavenly palace" and China's heavenly palace can crash land anytime on earth. And the worst part is that, according to a tweet, along with some major cities in the world, chances of the space station crashing in Mumbai is high as it falls under the danger zone.

The discussion over the passing away of China's Tiangong-1 satellite has been doing the rounds for weeks on the internet now. But as a Newsweek report mentions, majority are focused on whether it could end up landing on them and "not on what it was doing up there in the first place."

The report goes on to mention that the falling satellite, was China's trial at building space stations. It claims that the satellite was designed to last for only two years. The reason for it being up there was to receive other spacecrafts Its key tasks were to receive other spacecrafts and to host an astronaut who could spend two weeks in the space.

If you are wondering what is this all about and what really happened, here is the story for you in short: China wants to be a space superpower and knows that developing a space station is the first step towards that direction. The communist giant launched the first docking spacecraft in 2011- a docking or berthing of a spacecraft is the joining of two space vehicles. After that, two additional spacecrafts were sent in 2012 and 2013. The last mission sent to the Tiangong- 1, named "Shenzou" was a manned mission. The manned missions to Tiangong-1 were notable for including China's first female astronauts, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping.

China had developed the Tiangong satellite for only two years and did not want to extend it further. The spacecraft completed two years in 2014 itself but it was sustained by China after that. But then, China stopped giving the satellite the required signal and support that is a must for the survival of satellites and keeps them steady. Later, China announced the end of Tiangong service but claimed that it had lost touch with the space station and that the spacecraft had stopped responding to commands in 2016.

As of late November 2017, Tiangong-1 was approximately 290 km high and is falling to Earth about 10 km per month. Scientists claim that it is expected to fall in April second week, 2018. Social media has been busy speculating when and where will the satellite Tiangong- 1 fall and there have been some startling or humorous claims, depending upon how you take it, for example this tweet:

Now, though Mumbai is marked as dangerous zone in this tweet and picture, there is no need to fear. Yes the satellite and space station is falling on earth but it definitely won't fall on you and if anyone claims so you can cite this article to defend your rational belief. But for the moment we all know what China's answer will be to the question what's up? They might as well reply that what's up is coming down, very soon.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 10, 2018 03:33 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).