In 2011, China had ambitiously launched Tiangong-1, their first space station. The satellite station was scheduled for a controlled crash landing in an ocean.

According to an astronomer who spoke to News Australia, it could crash at any any moment

Its re-entry into Earth's atmosphere won't be a controlled landing, but a fiery, molten metal laden crash. Amateur satellite tracker Thomas Dorman told Space.com that he'd been following the satellite using telescopes and cameras, and had spotted a problem with the device.

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

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"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."

China isn't saying anything - that's the scary bit

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Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation, said that China's silence on the matter could means it's already in freefall: "That would seem to suggest that it's not being deorbited under control. That's the implication."