Out of control Chinese space station to crash into a major city, warn experts

LONDON: A Chinese space station could smash into a major city early next year, the European Space Agency said.

Experts claimed that the 8.5-tonne Tiangong-1, or “Heavenly Palace”, has gone out of control and headed towards the earth, The Sun reported.

The 'imminent' crash could take place "any spot" between two latitude lines in the northern and southern hemispheres, experts said.

The station, which is 12 metres long, would crash between January and March, they claimed.

Experts said New York, Los Angeles, Beijing, Rome, Istanbul and Tokyo are among major cities that could be at risk.

However, they claimed Britain would be safe.

'The potential impact area is so large that residents shouldn't be too worried about impending death from above,' the report said citing experts.

“Owing to the geometry of the station’s orbit, we can already exclude the possibility that any fragments will fall over any spot further north than 43ºN or further south than 43ºS.

“This means that re-entry may take place over any spot on Earth between these latitudes, which includes several European countries, for example,” Holger Krag, head of ESA’s Space Debris Office, quoted as saying.

“The date, time and geographic footprint of the re-entry can only be predicted with large uncertainties. Even shortly before re-entry, only a very large time and geographical window can be estimated,” he added.

It is expected that the station would reduce significantly in size as the Earth's atmosphere burns it up.

"Based on our calculation and analysis, most parts of the space lab will burn up during falling," the report quoted a spokesperson for China's space agency as saying.