Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BERLIN (AP) — China's defunct Tiangong 1 space station is hurtling toward Earth and expected to re-enter the atmosphere within the next day.
Most of it should burn up on re-entry, so scientists say it poses only a slight risk to people on the ground.
The European Space Agency on Sunday forecast the station will re-enter sometime between Sunday night and early Monday GMT.
The Aerospace Corp. predicted re-entry seven hours either side of 0200 GMT Monday (10 p.m. Sunday EDT).
Tiangong 1 is expected to come to Earth somewhere between 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south, a range covering most of the U.S., China, Africa, southern Europe, Australia and South America.
Out of range are Russia, Canada and northern Europe.
Only about 10 percent of the 8.5-ton spacecraft will likely survive re-entry.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.









