Space News by Andrew Jones — July 19, 2019
China carried out the controlled deorbiting of its Tiangong-2 space lab into the South Pacific, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced Friday.
The 8.6-metric-ton Tiangong-2 (‘Heavenly Palace 2’) reentered over the South Pacific Ocean Uninhabited Area at 9:06 a.m. Eastern using its own propulsion, following an engine burn 10 a.m. July 18 to lower the spacecraft’s perigee. Limited onboard footage of the event was released shortly after.
CMSEO stated July 13 that it would end the Tiangong-2 mission July 19 Beijing time, in keeping with an announcement in September 2018 that the space lab would be deliberately deorbited this year.
The maneuver follows the high-profile and uncontrolled re-entry of Tiangong-1 in April 2018, having lost contact with and control of the experimental space lab in 2016.
More:
https://spacenews.com/chinas-tiangong-2-space-lab-reenters-over-south-pacific/
