Amateur astronomers say Chinese space station could crash to Earth – are they right?
Amateur astronomer Thomas Dorman, an experienced satellite tracker from Texas, US, suggested the Chinese had lost control of Tiangong when he noticed the space station was rotating a certain way.
It is interesting that the coverage has been triggered by amateur astronomers' observations of Tiangong. Everyone can observe and monitor the existence of satellites in orbit – keeping tabs on what goes on up there. Therefore, it becomes a lot harder keeping things secretly in orbit, as demonstrated by the regular tracking of the US X-37B Space Plane. The details of the mission, launched by the US Air Force, are mostly classified.
This was the first time that China's space program launched (Chang Zheng 7 rocket). China is planning to use the rocket on future missions to carry astronauts to the space station they want to launch later this year.
China's Tiangong-1 space station has been orbiting the planet for about 5 years now, but recently it was decommissioned and the Chinese astronauts returned to the surface. In a press conference last week, China announced that the space station would be falling back to earth at some point in late 2017.
Track Tiangong and its re-entry sometime on Monday.