Monday, April 2

2.46am: Tiangong-1 manages to avoid crashing into the Spacecraft Cemetery Mr McDowell stated that the Chinese space station managed to avoid landing in the “spacecraft graveyard”. He referred to an area in the south of the Pacific Ocean that has become famous for the depositing of waste-filled cargo ships and the Mir space station. The Mir was a space station that orbited the earth from 1986 to 2001. It was deorbited in 1999 due to a lack of funding.

2.33am: The Chinese space station was mostly burnt on re-entry China’s state news agency Xinhua stated that the Tiangong-1 space station mostly burnt up when re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.

2.25am: Tiangong-1 crashes north-west of Tahiti The Chinese space station has crashed landed on Earth - it struck at the north-west of Tahiti. Mr McDowell stated: “North-west of Tahiti - it managed to miss the 'spacecraft graveyard' which is further south!” Tahiti is the largest island in French Polynesia. It is located in the South Pacific Ocean.

2.22am: China reported that the Tiangong-1 re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. It has been confirmed that re-entry took place over the South Pacific Ocean at 1.16am GMT.

2.19am: Tiangong-1 re-enters the atmosphere The Chinese space station is understood to have re-entered Earth’s atmosphere.

The predictions were actually pretty good pic.twitter.com/QfSG3Z2RqI — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 2, 2018

2.14am: Chinese space station cruises over Kyrgystan The Tiangong-1 is believed to be passing over Kyrgystan in Central Asia. However, it is worth noting that some experts believe that data being analysed could be out of date and that the space station could have already crash landed on Earth.

2.12: Tiangong-1 begins its re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere The now defunct Chinese space station began its descent at 1.30am GMT. However, it is worth noting that The Aerospace Corporation estimate could have a margin of error of 1.7 hours plus or minus. The corporation declared: "Chances that space debris will hurt anybody are extremely slim, although when and where the space station's remains will land is still unknown."

NW of Tahiti - it managed to miss the 'spacecraft graveyard' which is further south! pic.twitter.com/Sj4e42O7Dc — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 2, 2018

2.08am: The Tiangong-1 space station soars over the Mediterranean Sea The Chinese space station is currently soaring over the Mediterranean Sea and is traveling at an altitude of 136.3kilometres.

2.00am: The Tiangong-1 soars over the Sahara Desert The Chinese space station is currently flying over the Sahara Desert in Afria. It is believed the station is traveling at a height of around 134kilometres.

1.50am: Overcast weather in South America could be responsible for a lack of Tiangong-1 sightings Mr McDowell stated that the weather in Uruguay and Buenos Aires is “overcast”. He added that he has received a “lack of reports” about the Chinese space station for the region.

1.47am: Tiangong-1 is set to cross the Ivory Coast and Ghana next The Chinese space station is set to cross Africa in minutes, according to Mr McDowell. However, the astronomer noted that the prediction is based on “unreliable” data. He said: “Based on the unreliable orbit extrapolation, next landfall is 00.52am UTC (1.52 GMT) over Cote d'Ivoire and Ghana.”

1.42am: No reports have emerged of the Chinese space station crossing South America yet - has it already crashed? No reports have yet emerged of the Tiangong-1 station passing over South America, according to astronomer McDowell. He added that it is still unclear whether the station is still in orbit. Mr McDowell explained: “Didn't get any reports yet of people seeing Tiangong over S America. “No decay notice on Space-Track yet. Unclear if Tiangong is still in orbit or not. “That's normal, I'm afraid! We just have to wait…”

#Tiangong1 re-entered at 00:16 UTC, April 02 #space Cool to watch but data during track was mixed from different sites. pic.twitter.com/UlaIuLLUnB — Jeffrey Lowes (@jeffreylowes) April 2, 2018

1.36am: Tiangong-1 is set to pass over Uruguay within minutes. The space station is set to pass over the Uruguay capital of Montevideo and the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires. Mr McDowell said: “In 10 minutes plus or minus a few, should get a pass near Montevideo and Buenos Aires.”

Aerospace Corporation The bus-sized space station is predicted to plunge at around 12.10am tomorrow

1.32am: Chinese space station is set to cross the Chile’s coast The Tiangong-1 is set to pass over the coast of Chile at 1.32am, according to astronomer McDowell. However, he admitted that the orbit of the station has probably changed, meaning forecast are most likely “off by several minutes”. He tweeted: “Based on the now old orbit data, prediction is that Tiangong will cross the Chilean coast at 0032 UTC (1.32GMT). “But the predictions are probably off by several minutes now as the orbit will have greatly changed.”

1.19am: Could the Tiangong-1 have already crash landed on Earth? Mr McDowell speculated that the Chinese space station may have already crash landed on Earth. It is understood that if the Tiangong-1 landed in a remote area the plunge could take time to be confirmed. In his latest tweet, he said: “I have a feeling the next 3 hours are going to be me explaining that: yes, it might have come down by now, but no, we don't actually know.”

Areas under the groundtrack include southern S America, west Central Africa, North Africa, the Mideast, Central Asia, China and Japan, the S Atlantic and the W and S Pacific — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 1, 2018

1.06am: The Tiangong-1 is nearing the end of its first orbit during its re-entry window The Chinese space station that is set to hit Earth within hours is nearing the end of its first orbit during the re-entry period, Mr McDowell claimed. He said: “Approaching the end of Orbit 1 of the reentry window. Aerospace Corp seems to have an updated 132 x 140 km orbit, no updated Space-Track TLE yet.”

12.56am: Tiangong-1 passes over Korea and is headed for Japan The Chinese space station is understood to have passed over North and South Korea and is closing in on Japan.

12.42am: Chinese space station is currently over the capital of Tajikistan The Tiangong-1 station is currently over the city of Dushanbe in Tajikistan.

12.34: The Chinese space station is set to pass over North Korea The Tiangong-1 space station is set to pass over North Korea at 12.50am GMT, according to Mr McDowell. He stated added that Beijing, South Korea and Kyoto will also see passovers. He wrote: “Upcoming passes 3 (still Orbit 1): 11.49pm UTC Beijing, 11.50pm UTC Pyongyang 11.51pm UTC Gangwon Pr., South Korea, 11.53pm UTC Kyoto, Nagoya, 12.03am UTC Kwajalein. “China is now quoting an 12.11-1.33am UTC reentry window. “Not clear the have the data to take this seriously. “Also, they quote a reentry position. If they only know the time worse than an hour, they can't know the position to within +- 13000 km, so the position is meaningless.”

144 km above China. TG-1 continues in orbit. It will make a pass right over Hawaii at 1105 HST. pic.twitter.com/JnH9msuL9j — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 1, 2018

12.26am: Tiangong-1 will pass over China within the next 20 minutes The Tiangong-1 space station is set to pass over its birthplace within the next 20 minutes, an astronomer has claimed. Jonathan McDowell declared that areas in Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and China will all see passes within minutes. He stated: “2336 UTC Isfahan/Yazd, Iran, 2338 UTC eastern Turkmenistan, 2339 UTC Dushanbe, Tajikistan, 2343 UTC Xinjiang, China, 2346 UTC China/Mongolia border.” All of these times would be one hour ahead in GMT.

12.10pm: Tiangong-1 is set to pass over Saudi Arabia The Chinese space station is set to pass over Gabon, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait within the next 30 minutes, according to astronomer Jonathan McDowell. He declared: “Upcoming passes: 11.22 UTC Gabon, 11.25 UTC Bangui, C.A.R., 11.28 UTC Sudan, 11.32 UTC Saudi Arabia, 11.34 UTC Kuwait.” All of these times would be one hour ahead in GMT.

Tiangong-1 now starting what I am calling 'orbit 0', the final 90-minute orbit before the start of the reentry window. pic.twitter.com/YuxshutIdY — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 1, 2018

12.03am: Tiangong-1 passes over Patagonia during re-entry window The Chinese space station has now passed over the South American region of Patagonia.

Sunday, April 1

23.52: Tiangong-1 re-entry window is now open The re-entry window for the Chinese space station is now open - it is still unknown exactly when and where it will land.

11.46pm: It is less than 10 minutes until the Tiangong-1 starts its four hour re-entry window Astronomer Jonathan McDowell declared that the countdown to the Chinese space station’s re-entry window is “less than 10 minutes” away. He wrote: “Less than 10 minutes till the start of the four hour long TIP reentry window. Remember: this thing will reenter spectacularly but it will (almost super certainly) not hurt anyone. “We may not know that it's come down until an hour or so after it actually has done.”

Upcoming passes:

2322 UTC Gabon

2325 UTC Bangui, C.A.R.

2328 UTC Sudan

2332 UTC Saudi Arabia

2334 UTC Kuwait — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 1, 2018

11.14pm: 40 minutes until Tiangong-1 re-entry window Mr McDowell stated that it is currently “40 minutes” until the re-entry window of the Chinese space station. He commented: Tiangong-1 passing 140 km over China. 40 minutes till start of formal reentry window.

10.52pm: It is now one hour until the start of the Tiangong-1’s re-entry window Astronomer Jonathan McDowell declared that it is currently one hour until the Chinese space station enters its re-entry window. He tweeted: “One hour to start of reentry window most recent TIP prediction. “Tiangong 1 crossing the coast of Namibia heading north east.”

Upcoming passes 2:



2336 UTC Isfahan/Yazd, Iran

2338 UTC eastern Turkmenistan

2339 UTC Dushanbe, Tajikistan

2343 UTC Xinjiang, China

2346 UTC China/Mongolia border — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 1, 2018

10.46pm: Areas the Tiangong-1 could hit have been named Mr McDowell declared that based on the currently ground track of the Chinese space station, a number of different nations around the world could feel its impact. He claimed: “Areas under the ground track include southern South America, west Central Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, China and Japan, the South Atlantic and the West and South Pacific.”

10.15pm: When the Tiangong-1 space station plummets back down to Earth, it could be “hours” before the crash location is known Dr Marco Langbroek, a Palaeolithic archaeologist, stated that if the Chinese space station plunges into a “remote area” it could be hours before the Joint Space Operations Centre (JSPOC) “releases their post-mortem”. He stated: “If Tiangong-1 goes down over a remote area of this planet (i.e. somewhere over the Pacific), we might not know for certain for many hours, until JSPOC releases their post-mortem. “If they only have ground sensor data, there might still be a remaining, final uncertainty in the time and location. “In this case I suspect that somewhere on April 2, they will release a TIP and location accurate to 1 minute however. They often do for larger objects. “We have no proof, but we strongly suspect these very accurate, +- 1 minute times are based on Space Based observations of the re-entry fireball. “The US military has a network of Early Warning satellites in geosynchronous orbit called SBIRS and DSP. “These look for missile launches, in infra-red wavelengths. They also detect reentry fireballs. We think the +- 1 min post-mortems stem from such observations.”

Didn't get any reports yet of people seeing Tiangong over S America. No decay notice on Space-Track yet. Unclear if Tiangong is still in orbit or not. That's normal, I'm afraid! We just have to wait... — Jonathan McDowell (@planet4589) April 2, 2018

9:53pm: Tiangong-1 is now more than 100km above its home country of China Mr McDowell, who is continuing to track the trajectory of the space station, said that it will pass over Hawaii in just over an hour. He tweeted: "144 km above China. TG-1 continues in orbit. It will make a pass right over Hawaii at 1105 HST."

9.44pm: Countries around the world ruled out from being hit by the Tiangong-1 Mr McDowell, who has been tracking the movements of the Chinese space station, claimed that a number of countries will not be hit when it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere. He tweeted: “Sad news for my followers in North America, India, Europe and Australia: if the current prediction is correct, Tiangong will not be falling on you.”

9.22pm: Tiangong-1 enters its “final 90-minute orbit” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, stated that the Tiangong-1 has entered “orbit zero”. He tweeted: “Tiangong-1 now starting what I am calling 'orbit zero’, the final 90-minute orbit before the start of the reentry window.”

9.22pm: Former NASA astronaut speaks out about the Tiangong-1 Leroy Chiao iterated that there are a number of factors that will influence the time of the space station’s plunge back to Earth. He told Sky News: "It's really hard to predict these things because many things influence the density of the atmosphere, and you know, how much grab it's going to have on the space craft as it comes down."

Aerospace Corporation The orbital speed of the Tiangong-1 is understood to be dependent upon the sun

9.14pm: The latest Tiangong-1 crash time has been issued The Aerospace Corp has said in its latest update that Tiangong-1 is currently predicted to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere around 12:18am, although the exact timing could vary by up to two hours.

The bus-sized space station is predicted to plunge at around 12.10am tomorrow - however the exact timing of the re-entry could vary by up to two-and-a-half-hours. Andrew Abraham, a member of the The Aerospace Corporation, stated that an estimated “10 percent to 40 percent” of the Tiangong-1 station will survive its descent back to Earth. He stated: "Our company has the ability to predict space debris if we have a firm idea of the exact composition of the space object. “Especially ones in which we're involved with the design.

Getty The Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at midnight tonight

"But because China doesn't really send that information, the best we can tell you is between 10 percent and 40 percent of the mass of Tiangong-1 would survive.” The European Space Agency declared in a recent update that re-entry is likely to take place “from the night of April 1 to the early morning of April 2”. The orbital speed of the Tiangong-1 is understood to be dependent upon the sun. If the sun is active, its energy pushes strongly against the atmosphere of Earth, meaning it becomes denser at a higher altitude and could impact the levels of drag against the Tiangong-1’s orbiting speed.

Dieter Isakeit, the chair of the information and communication committee for the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety, admitted that tracking exactly when and where the doomed space station will come crashing back down to Earth is incredibly difficult. “The problem here is less the probability for an aircraft to be directly hit by space debris, but the difficulty to predict precisely the area of possible impacts and their exact time of occurrence, because of uncertainties resulting from variations of solar activity.” Mr Isakeit added that air traffic control teams could “totally close” large areas off from flying if detailed information about the crash does not emerge. The Aerospace Corporation has already attempted to calm fears that a single person could be hit by flying debris as the Tiangong-1 re-enters the atmosphere.

EPA Areas the Tiangong-1 could hit have been named