Earlier this yr the existence was abuzz with the news that a Taiwanese space station , call Tiangong-1 , was about tocrash on Earth . Well get ready , because now we ’ve make another one .
China has said that its Tiangong-2 blank space station will return to Earth in July 2019 . Unlike its predecessor , this will be a controlled re - entry , but it in all likelihood will still collect a good deal of attending .
“ Tiangong-2 has execute its commission during the two - year time , and all the load are now in good term , " aver Lin Xiqiang , deputy film director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office , to province media websiteCGTN . “ It will be in orbit until July 2019 , and then will be controlled to deorbit . ”
As Xiqiang citation , Tiangong-2 was launch in September 2016 as an experimental space laboratory ahead of plans for a larger space post . It ’s or so the sizing of a unmarried - Thomas Decker bus , and has welcomed a crowd on just one occasion – from October to November 2016 .
Since then it has been uncrewed , orbiting our planet at a meridian of about 400 kilometers ( 250 stat mi ) . In June this year however , Tiangong-2 hit the headlines when stargazer spotted Chinalowering and raising the station ’s orbit . This may have been a psychometric test ahead of the contain re - unveiling next year .
China is trust to use the lessons learned from Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 to part constructing apermanent blank space stationin 2022 . Not too much is know about this at the moment , although China has said it desire to allowinternational cooperationon board .
The nation hasloftier ambitiousness , too . Earlier this year it launched thefirst partin an approaching mission to the far side of the Moon . That mean a relay race satellite , which will return signals to Earth from a planned rover on the far side , due to establish afterward this year .
China is also plan to send a probe to Mars in 2020 , and has its eye onreturning a samplefrom the surface of Mars some level later . It may do this with a jumbo new roquette calledLong - March 9that it is constructing , which will touch NASA ’s Space Launch System ( SLS ) .
Before that though , we ’ll get to watch as another Chinese space place re - accede that standard pressure . It may not be as exciting as the Tiangong-1 re - entry , being controlled and all , but it ’ll probably still be quite exciting .
