An out-of-control Chinese space station moving at 17,000mph is set to plummet to Earth over the weekend, leaving space experts scrambling to guess where according to The Telegraph.
Tiangong-1, or “The Heavenly Palace,” could re-enter the atmosphere over a major city and scientists will not know until a few hours before it happens.
China’s first space station, which weighs eight tonnes, was supposed to have a “controlled re-entry” splashing down in the Pacific Ocean thousands of miles from civilisation.
It has since been orbiting in an ever-descending death spiral. On Tuesday it was at an altitude of 130 miles and falling faster than ever before.
The space station was expected to re-enter the atmosphere between March 31 and April 4.
Tiangong-1 was originally planned to be decommissioned in 2013 but China has repeatedly extended the length of its mission.
It is currently tumbling over about once every three minutes as it orbits the Earth 16 times a day, however, some experts played down the risk of being people being hit by the plummeting space station.
