China’s first space station will meet a fiery end next year when the 8.5-tonne module comes crashing down to Earth, amid concerns authorities have lost control of the craft.

The Tiangong-1 space station was launched in September 2011 and currently orbits Earth at an altitude of 230 miles (370km).

But in July, amateur astronomers suggested China had “lost control” of the satellite, after Chinese media reported the country’s space agency had struggled to get in contact with it.

We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 USD 0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.

Officials have now confirmed that after four and a half years in orbit, Tiangong-1 (meaning Heavenly Palace) is expected to plummet to Earth in late 2017.

Speaking at a satellite launch for the space station’s successor in the Gobi Desert in northern China, officials from China’s manned space programme said the craft had ended its service in March this year having “comprehensively fulfilled its historical mission”.

Wu Ping, deputy director of the manned space engineering office said: “Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling.”

According to Space.com the less than precise landing time indicates the operators had lost control of the unit, as if they were still able to communicate with it, they could steer it to “a guided re-entry over an empty stretch of ocean at a specified time”.

Like other lost satellites, it’s likely that the freefalling station will burn up on its way back into Earth and come back down in smaller chunks of molten metal rather than with a big crash.

However, some denser engine parts are unlikely to burn up completely and could potentially cause problems on the ground.

Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told the Guardian the announcement suggested the doomed craft would now re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere naturally, making it near impossible to predict where any debris will fall.

Independent news email Only the best news in your inbox Independent news email Only the best news in your inbox Enter your email address Continue Continue Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid Email already exists. Log in to update your newsletter preferences Register with your social account or click here to log in I would like to receive morning headlines Monday - Friday plus breaking news alerts by email Update newsletter preferences

“You really can’t steer these things,” he said. “Even a couple of days before it re-enters we probably won’t know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it’s going to come down. Not knowing when it’s going to come down translates as not knowing where it’s going to come down.”

“There will be lumps of about 100kg or so, still enough to give you a nasty wallop if it hit you,” he added.

He said that even small changes in atmospheric conditions would be enough to nudge the craft “from one continent to the next”.

But according to Chinese news agency Xinhua, Ms Wu said the space station’s re-entry was “unlikely to affect aviation activities or cause damage to the ground”.

“China has always highly valued the management of space debris, conducting research and tests on space debris mitigation and cleaning,” Wu said.

Shape Created with Sketch. The most incredible space images of Earth Show all 30 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. The most incredible space images of Earth 1/30 Striking Africa Explore ESA astronaut Tim Peake's stunning photos of Earth, taken from the International Space Station during his six month mission (captions by Tom Peake) "The striking colour and texture of Africa Illizi, Algeria" 2/30 Favourite Reef "Every day spent living in space is a great day, but today was particularly special. I got to speak with one of my inspirational heroes Prof Stephen Hawking and his amazing daughter Lucy, who developed the Principia Space Diary to engage children with STEM subjects. As well as talking about dark matter, quantum entanglement, alien life and light beam powered nanocraft we also got to see an amazing pass over the Bahamas and this - my favourite reef smile emoticon" 3/30 Russia's north-east coast "Sunrise approaching Russia's frozen north-east coast" 4/30 Hello London "Hello London! Fancy a run? :) #LondonMarathon" 5/30 Bahamas "50 shades of blue: Bahamas" 6/30 Yinchuan "Snow on the mountains next to Yinchuan in China" 7/30 Rocket flames in Africa "Is it just me or do I see some rocket flames down there? These strange land features are in the Erg Iguidi desert, with its yellow stripes of sand stretching from Algeria to northern Mauritania in the Sahara" 8/30 Stunning colours "Sunlight reflecting the stunning colours of this Himalayan lake" 9/30 The real Everest "The real thing: found Everest! Last picture turned out to be third-tallest mountain Kanchengjunga" 10/30 Go Exomars "Go #Exomars – have a great mission. Earth has more in common with Mars than you might think… #AfricaArt" 11/30 Tenerife "Amazingly clear view of Tenerife" 12/30 Midday winter sun "Some midday winter sun glinting off Greenland’s snow-capped peaks" 13/30 Sand dunes "Great texture in these huge sand dunes, Saudi Arabia" 14/30 Dragon Dam "The dam makes this river look like a dragon’s tail. Oahe Dam north of Pierre, South Dakota in the United States. (North is to the right)" 15/30 Smoking volcano "Spotted volcano smoking away on Russia’s far east coast this morning – heat has melted snow around top" 16/30 New Zealand "New Zealand looking stunning in the sunshine. Mt Cook centre left with the Grand Plateau to the front and Mt Tasman (3,497m) to the right of the Grand Plateau. Fox Glacier in the middle then Franz Josef curving right. Tasman Lake (largest at front) is at the foot of the Tasman glacier which runs along the front of them. The Hooker Glacier flows out behind Mt Cook coming down to meet the Mueller Glacier on the left of the photo. The Murchison Glacier is at the front of the photo running parallel with the Tasman Glacier" 17/30 Plankton bloom "Another great pass over Patagonia and a swirling plankton bloom off the coast" 18/30 Alaska "We don’t often get such clear views of Alaska" 19/30 Lights along the Nile "Lights along the Nile stretching into the distance from Cairo" 20/30 Kamchatka "The Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ clear to see amongst the volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia" 21/30 Cumulonimbus "I’m guessing there was an impressive storm going on under that cumulonimbus cloud" 22/30 Night Sahara "Night-time Sahara – you can really see how thin the Earth’s atmosphere is in this picture" 23/30 Japan "Tokyo and Japanese coast. This image shows most of Japan with the largest mass of light corresponding to Tokyo. The white lights on the left are fishing boats" 24/30 Morning sun volcanoes "Morning sun striking active volcanoes in Guatemala" 25/30 Tapajos River "The vast waters of the Tapajos river, Amazonia" 26/30 Patagonia "Beautiful glacial river water flowing from this Patagonian ice field Lake Viedma, West is up" 27/30 Dubai Palms "Minus the #Dragon photobomb this time..." 28/30 Sediment in Ethiopia "Sediment spilling into this mountain lake, Ethiopia" 29/30 Italy "We have phases of ‘short nights’ on the International Space Station – sunlight is nearly always visible right now. No prizes for guessing where this is…" 30/30 Panama Canal "From one mighty ocean to another – ships passing through the Panama canal" 1/30 Striking Africa Explore ESA astronaut Tim Peake's stunning photos of Earth, taken from the International Space Station during his six month mission (captions by Tom Peake) "The striking colour and texture of Africa Illizi, Algeria" 2/30 Favourite Reef "Every day spent living in space is a great day, but today was particularly special. I got to speak with one of my inspirational heroes Prof Stephen Hawking and his amazing daughter Lucy, who developed the Principia Space Diary to engage children with STEM subjects. As well as talking about dark matter, quantum entanglement, alien life and light beam powered nanocraft we also got to see an amazing pass over the Bahamas and this - my favourite reef smile emoticon" 3/30 Russia's north-east coast "Sunrise approaching Russia's frozen north-east coast" 4/30 Hello London "Hello London! Fancy a run? :) #LondonMarathon" 5/30 Bahamas "50 shades of blue: Bahamas" 6/30 Yinchuan "Snow on the mountains next to Yinchuan in China" 7/30 Rocket flames in Africa "Is it just me or do I see some rocket flames down there? These strange land features are in the Erg Iguidi desert, with its yellow stripes of sand stretching from Algeria to northern Mauritania in the Sahara" 8/30 Stunning colours "Sunlight reflecting the stunning colours of this Himalayan lake" 9/30 The real Everest "The real thing: found Everest! Last picture turned out to be third-tallest mountain Kanchengjunga" 10/30 Go Exomars "Go #Exomars – have a great mission. Earth has more in common with Mars than you might think… #AfricaArt" 11/30 Tenerife "Amazingly clear view of Tenerife" 12/30 Midday winter sun "Some midday winter sun glinting off Greenland’s snow-capped peaks" 13/30 Sand dunes "Great texture in these huge sand dunes, Saudi Arabia" 14/30 Dragon Dam "The dam makes this river look like a dragon’s tail. Oahe Dam north of Pierre, South Dakota in the United States. (North is to the right)" 15/30 Smoking volcano "Spotted volcano smoking away on Russia’s far east coast this morning – heat has melted snow around top" 16/30 New Zealand "New Zealand looking stunning in the sunshine. Mt Cook centre left with the Grand Plateau to the front and Mt Tasman (3,497m) to the right of the Grand Plateau. Fox Glacier in the middle then Franz Josef curving right. Tasman Lake (largest at front) is at the foot of the Tasman glacier which runs along the front of them. The Hooker Glacier flows out behind Mt Cook coming down to meet the Mueller Glacier on the left of the photo. The Murchison Glacier is at the front of the photo running parallel with the Tasman Glacier" 17/30 Plankton bloom "Another great pass over Patagonia and a swirling plankton bloom off the coast" 18/30 Alaska "We don’t often get such clear views of Alaska" 19/30 Lights along the Nile "Lights along the Nile stretching into the distance from Cairo" 20/30 Kamchatka "The Pacific ‘Ring of Fire’ clear to see amongst the volcanoes of Kamchatka, Russia" 21/30 Cumulonimbus "I’m guessing there was an impressive storm going on under that cumulonimbus cloud" 22/30 Night Sahara "Night-time Sahara – you can really see how thin the Earth’s atmosphere is in this picture" 23/30 Japan "Tokyo and Japanese coast. This image shows most of Japan with the largest mass of light corresponding to Tokyo. The white lights on the left are fishing boats" 24/30 Morning sun volcanoes "Morning sun striking active volcanoes in Guatemala" 25/30 Tapajos River "The vast waters of the Tapajos river, Amazonia" 26/30 Patagonia "Beautiful glacial river water flowing from this Patagonian ice field Lake Viedma, West is up" 27/30 Dubai Palms "Minus the #Dragon photobomb this time..." 28/30 Sediment in Ethiopia "Sediment spilling into this mountain lake, Ethiopia" 29/30 Italy "We have phases of ‘short nights’ on the International Space Station – sunlight is nearly always visible right now. No prizes for guessing where this is…" 30/30 Panama Canal "From one mighty ocean to another – ships passing through the Panama canal"

Tiangong-2, China’s replacement for the space lab, was successfully launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket on 15 September from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north west China.</s>China’s first space station is expected to come crashing down to Earth next year, fuelling concerns that Chinese space authorities have lost control of the 8.5-tonne module.



The Tiangong-1 or “Heavenly Palace” lab was described as a “potent political symbol” of China’s growing power when it was launched in 2011 as part of an ambitious scientific push to turn China into a space superpower.

However, speaking at a satellite launch centre in the Gobi Desert last week officials said the unmanned module had now “comprehensively fulfilled its historical mission” and was set to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere at some point in the second half of 2017.

“Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling,” the deputy director of China’s manned space engineering office, Wu Ping, was quoted as saying by official news agency Xinhua.

The announcement appeared to confirm months of speculation that China had lost control of the 10.4m-long module after it suffered some kind of technical or mechanical failure.

Jonathan McDowell, renowned Harvard astrophysicist and space industry enthusiast, said the announcement suggested China had lost control of the station and that it would re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere “naturally.”



If this is the case, it would be impossible to predict where the debris from the space station will land.



“You really can’t steer these things,” he said. “Even a couple of days before it re-enters we probably won’t know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it’s going to come down. Not knowing when it’s going to come down translates as not knowing where its going to come down.”

McDowell said a slight change in atmospheric conditions could nudge the landing site “from one continent to the next”.



While most of the eight tonnes of space station would melt as it passes through the atmosphere, McDowell said some parts, such as the rocket engines, were so dense that they wouldn’t burn up completely. 



“There will be lumps of about 100kg or so, still enough to give you a nasty wallop if it hit you,” he said.



“Yes there’s a chance it will do damage, it might take out someone’s car, there will be a rain of a few pieces of metal, it might go through someone’s roof, like if a flap fell off a plane, but it is not widespread damage.”



Wu Ping, the space official, told reporters the lab – which was launched into space amid great fanfare in September 2011 – had made “important contributions to China’s manned space cause” during its four and a half years of service.

She claimed its return to earth was “unlikely to affect aviation activities or cause damage to the ground”.

“China has always highly valued the management of space debris, conducting research and tests on space debris mitigation and cleaning,” Wu said, according to Xinhua.

Wu said Tiangong-1 was “currently intact” and that authorities would “continue to monitor [it] and strengthen early warning for possible collision with objects.”

“If necessary, China will release a forecast of its falling and report it internationally,” she added.

Space enthusiasts who have been monitoring Tiangong-1, and attempting to draw attention to its plight, fear there is a risk – albeit small – that pieces of the falling lab could cause damage back on earth.



“It could be a real bad day if pieces of this came down in a populated area,” Thomas Dorman, an amateur astronomer who has been attempting to track the missing lab, was quoted as saying by the space.com website in June.

China’s first space lab was most likely to land in the ocean or in an uninhabited area, Dorman admitted.

“But remember – sometimes, the odds just do not work out, so this may bear watching.”</s>China has confirmed rumours that its Tiangong-1 space station is out of control and will crash back to Earth in 2017.

A senior official with the country's crewed space programme confirmed the news at a recent press conference, reports Xinhua.

The Tiangong-1 space station module was launched in 2011 and was expected to be deorbited at the end of its life to crash into the ocean or burn up in the atmosphere.

Chinese officials have now confirmed that it will head towards Earth in the latter half of 2017 - but no one knows where the debris will land.

Returning a spacecraft to Earth is tricky business, mostly due to the intense heat produced if the re-entry is uncontrolled.

'Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling, said Wu Ping, deputy director of the manned space engineering office, reports Xinhua.

The Chinese space agency will continue to monitor Tiangong-1 and has vowed to issue warnings if there are any potential collisions imminent.

The news confirms earlier reports from satellite trackers who have been watching the movement of Tiangong as it orbits the Earth.

They suggested that China may have lost control of the unmanned 8 ton (7.3 tonnes) vehicle, a theory that has now been confirmed.

Thomas Dorman, an amateur satellite tracker, told Space.com: 'If I am right, China will wait until the last minute to let the world know it has a problem with their space station.

'It could be a real bad day if pieces of this came down in a populated area, but odds are it will land in the ocean or in an unpopulated area.'

The news comes days after China launched it second space station - Tiangong 2 - on a Long March 7 rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert in northern China.

Two astronauts are scheduled to launch to the new space station on the Shenzhou 11 spacecraft in October, and are due to remain on board for a month.

The orbiting lab is considered to be a stepping stone in a mission to Mars by the end of the decade.

Tiangong-1, which means 'Heavenly Palace', was launched in September 2011 with the hope of creating a larger space complex that China wants to be operational in Earth orbit around 2020.

The module has performed a series of docking exercises, including the uncrewed Shenzhou-8 mission in 2011 and the crewed Shenzhou-10 mission in 2012.

According to the China Manned Space Engineering (CMSE) office, Tiangong-1 also contains Earth observation instrumentation and space environment detectors.

In a statement in 2014, officials from CMSE, said: 'Tiangong-1 has obtained a great deal of application and science data, which is valuable in mineral resources investigation, ocean and forest application, hydrologic and ecological environment monitoring, land use, urban thermal environment monitoring and emergency disaster control.'

While Tiangong-1 has collected huge amounts of data, earlier this year, state-run news agencies in China reported that the CMSE had terminated Tiangong-1's data-gathering activities.

Additionally, CMSE officials explained that the telemetry connection to the space lab had failed, which suggests that the vehicle will make an uncontrolled re-entry to Earth in the future.

However, other experts have reassured that such speculation does not mean that Tiangong-1 is definitely out of control.

Dr Thomas Kelso, a Senior Research Astrodynamicist at the Centre for Space Standards & Innovation, has plotted the altitude of the space station throughout its time in orbit, and says that it was re-boosted relatively recently.

While Dr Kelso does not have a way to measure the space station's stability, he told Space.com: 'We might expect to see the rate of decrease in altitude - the slope between re-boosts - increase if it was tumbling, since the station would have higher drag.

'Instead, we see the slowest decrease in altitude in recent years - consistent with the lower drag at a higher altitude.'

This would suggest that Tiangong-1 is dormant but stable.

Dr Kelso added: 'That might be why the Chinese aren't responding - they probably don't understand why they would need to.'</s>Tiangong 1, China's first space laboratory, will come to a fiery end in late 2017.

The average decommissioned satellite either burns up over a specific ocean region, or is ejected to a far-off orbital graveyard. But Tiangong 1's demise is shaping up to be something different.

Chinese officials appeared to admit that they had lost control of the station during a September 14 news conference in Jiuquan.

"Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling," said Wu Ping, a director at China's space engineering office, during the conference. A day later China launched Tiangong 2, the lab's successor, aboard a Long March 7 rocket.

READ MORE:

 * International Space station to pass over New Zealand

 * Nasa wants to bring enterprise to the International Space Station

 * Alien hunters excited by signal from space picked up by Russia

Wu added that China is monitoring the space station for collisions with other objects. And Xinhua, China's government-run news agency, reported that the Chinese space agency may need to release an international forecast for where Tiangong will land at a later date - an uncertainty that seems to indicate the descent is uncontrolled.

For the moment Tiangong 1 remains whole, currently orbiting the planet more than 200 miles above Earth's surface. China launched Tiangong 1, which translates to "Heavenly Palace," in 2011. (Strangely, as the rocket carrying the station blasted into space five years ago, China's state-run TV station played America the Beautiful.) It served as China's base of space experiments for roughly four-and-a-half years, two years longer than originally anticipated. The last crewed mission was in 2013, though the station continued to autonomously operate until it was decommissioned in March 2016.

Soon after, rumours surfaced that China no longer had control of the spacecraft. In June, amateur satellite tracker Thomas Dorman, from El Paso, warned Space.com that, based on his observations, the 8-ton space lab was out of control.

"If I am right," Dorman said at the time, "China will wait until the last minute to let the world know it has a problem with their space station."

Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell agreed that China's announcement indicated the spacecraft will fall where it may.

"You really can't steer these things," McDowell told The Guardian. "Even a couple of days before it re-enters we probably won't know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it's going to come down. Not knowing when it's going to come down translates as not knowing where it's going to come down."

Most satellites are not laid to rest this way. Many smaller craft incinerate completely in the upper atmosphere. For larger spacecraft destined for re-entry, the usual method is a planned descent. The wreckage that survives re-entry splashes down far from human habitation. Some 2,500 miles to the east of New Zealand, for instance, is a patch of the Pacific Ocean informally known as the spacecraft cemetery. Remains of the Mir station and more than a hundred other Russian, European and Japanese satellites sit in this area.

Though much of Tiangong 1 will disintegrate, McDowell predicted that 200-pound pieces - the tougher remnants of, say, rocket engines - could withstand the trauma of re-entry.

Even though China may not be able to steer Tiangong 1's flaming corpse into a specific spot, humans will likely be unharmed. The odds are very low it will fall in an inhabited area: Roughly speaking, half of the world's population lives on just 10 per cent of the land, which translates to only 2.9 per cent of Earth's surface. (By way of context, going back the last 1,000 years, no meteorite has killed a person.)

This would not be the first uncontrolled landing, either. President Jimmy Carter issued an apology to Australia in 1979, after the 77-ton Skylab fell to Earth. The wreckage landed near a remote Australian town. Though no one was injured, the Australian town fined the United States $400 for littering. A California radio DJ finally paid the fine in 2009.</s>It’s not looking good for China’s first space station, Tiangong-1. It’s expected to crash to Earth in the latter half of 2017 as space authorities have reportedly lost control of the floating laboratory.

Launched in September 2011 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Tiangong-1 is a prototype space station. It serves both as a manned lab and an experimental hub to test docking capabilities and orbital rendezvous. The space station’s name translates to “Heavenly Palace 1.”

Wu Ping, deputy director of China’s Manned Space Engineering office, said that most of the station is likely to blow up in pieces in the atmosphere and will pose no threat to people on the ground, Newsweek reports.

In its five years in space, Tiangong-1 has conducted observations of ongoing phenomena on Earth, such as the Australian bush fires and Yuyao floods in China. It kicked off China’s space program, successfully docking Shenzhou-8 in 2011 – another first for the country. It has been in service for over two years more than its original lifespan intended.

His announcement came just a few months after speculations that China had lost control of the station due to a mechanical or technical failure of sorts and that there has been no recent communication with Tiangong-1. Some observers have pointed out that the space station appears to be rolling in its orbit and flipping around, as if uncontrolled, Mashable reports.

China says it will monitor Tiangong-1’s re-entry and alert international bodies should any falling debris become a major safety threat. Tiangong-2 succeeds Tiangong-1, launched last week and will make way for Tiangong-3. China said it hopes to eventually send its own man on the moon and in the near future, carry out a mission to Mars.</s>China’s first space station will meet a fiery end next year when the 8.5-tonne module comes crashing down to Earth, amid concerns authorities have lost control of the craft.

The Tiangong-1 space station was launched in September 2011 and currently orbits Earth at an altitude of 230 miles (370km).

But in July, amateur astronomers suggested China had “lost control” of the satellite, after Chinese media reported the country’s space agency had struggled to get in contact with it.

Officials have now confirmed that after four and a half years in orbit, Tiangong-1 (meaning Heavenly Palace) is expected to plummet to Earth in late 2017.

Speaking at a satellite launch for the space station’s successor in the Gobi Desert in northern China, officials from China’s manned space programme said the craft had ended its service in March this year having “comprehensively fulfilled its historical mission”.

Wu Ping, deputy director of the manned space engineering office said: “Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling.”

According to Space.com the less than precise landing time indicates the operators had lost control of the unit, as if they were still able to communicate with it, they could steer it to “a guided re-entry over an empty stretch of ocean at a specified time”.

Like other lost satellites, it’s likely that the freefalling station will burn up on its way back into Earth and come back down in smaller chunks of molten metal rather than with a big crash.

However, some denser engine parts are unlikely to burn up completely and could potentially cause problems on the ground.

Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told the Guardian the announcement suggested the doomed craft would now re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere naturally, making it near impossible to predict where any debris will fall.

“You really can’t steer these things,” he said. “Even a couple of days before it re-enters we probably won’t know better than six or seven hours, plus or minus, when it’s going to come down. Not knowing when it’s going to come down translates as not knowing where it’s going to come down.”

“There will be lumps of about 100kg or so, still enough to give you a nasty wallop if it hit you,” he added.

He said that even small changes in atmospheric conditions would be enough to nudge the craft “from one continent to the next”.

But according to Chinese news agency Xinhua, Ms Wu said the space station’s re-entry was “unlikely to affect aviation activities or cause damage to the ground”.

“China has always highly valued the management of space debris, conducting research and tests on space debris mitigation and cleaning,” Wu said.

Tiangong-2, China’s replacement for the space lab, was successfully launched aboard a Long March 2F rocket on 15 September from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in north west China.</s>China launched its second space station, Tiangong-2, on Thursday, according to state media reports, paving the way for a permanent space station that the country plans to build around 2022.

The launch of the new satellite comes five years after the country launched its first space station, Tiangong-1, in September 2011.

The space station Tiangong-2 is China’s first real space lab. A brain-computer interaction test system, developed by Tianjin University, has been installed in the lab and it is set to conduct a series of experiments in space, People’s Daily reported.

According to Ming Dong, the leader of the research team in charge of the brain-computer test system, the brain-computer interaction will eventually be the highest form of human-machine communication.

Regarding the use of such brain-computer interaction technology in space, the leader of the research team suggested that it could also help Tiangong-2 astronauts to more easily accomplish their assigned tasks.

For example, the brain-computer interaction can transmit the astronauts’ thoughts into operations, while at the same time observing their neurological functions.

The Tiangong-2, whose name means “Heavenly Palace,” will be used to test space technology and conduct medical and space experiments.

According to the military expert, in the future, a third module is planned for launch, in which a crew of 3 people will be able to stay in orbit for up to 40 days. The refueling technology of the orbiter is also planned to be developed in this module.

Thus, it is hoped that with the advent of the private Chinese space station, China will establish a permanent presence in space and will begin to experiment with long-term human experiments required for flights to other planets.
The China National Space Administration (CNSA) confirms its Tiangong-1 prototype space station, launched in September 2011, is "out of control", and will re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere in late 2017.