Now, an update on the re-entry of China's space lab that has been steadily falling back to Earth…<br />It's been confirmed that the decommissioned Tiangong-1 has re-entered the atmosphere and broken up over the South Pacific.<br />Park Se-young has more. <br /> China's Tiangong-1 space module re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at around 8:15 a.m. Beijing time on Monday.<br />According to China's Manned Space Engineering Office, the defunct space lab plummeted into the middle of the South Pacific and most parts turned to ash in the re-entry process.<br />Beijing said last Friday that it was unlikely any large pieces would reach the ground,…with a mere ten percent of the eight-and-a-half-ton spacecraft likely to survive.<br />The odds that the debris caused any damage or injury are extremely small, according to experts.<br /><br /> The bus-sized Tiangong-1, whose name translates as "Heavenly Place 1," was put into orbit in 2011 as a prototype for China's ambitious space program, …which aims to place a permanent station into orbit by 2023.<br />In May of last year, China told the United Nations that the space lab had (quote) "ceased functioning" in March 2016 …without saying why.<br /> The re-entry was originally said to occur in late 2017 but the process was delayed, …which led experts to suggest the space lab was out of control.<br />Park Se-young, Arirang News. <br />
