The US Strategic Command’s Joint Force Space Component Command (JFSCC) issued a statement saying that its re-entry was confirmed. The Chinese space office had said shortly before that it was expected to re-enter off the Brazilian coast in the South Atlantic near the cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Based on the space station’s orbit, it could have come back to Earth somewhere 43 degrees north and 43 degrees south, a range covering most of the United States, China, Africa, southern Europe, Australia and South America.
Burning Chinese station
The eight-tonne craft was unlikely to cause any damage when crashed. Scientists calculated the chances of any one person being hit by debris were considered less than one in a trillion. There is “no need for people to worry”, the China Manned Space Engineering Office said earlier on its WeChat social media account. The module was originally intended to be used for just two years, but ended up serving considerably longer. Beijing began its manned spaceflight programme in 1990 after buying Russian technology that enabled it to become the third country with the ability to launch humans into space, following the former Soviet Union and the United States.
