China's Defunct Space Station Will Crash Into Earth On March 31, But We Still Don't Know Where

China¡¯s Tiangong-1 space station has been in limbo these past few months.

The defunct station had been decommissioned and pulled out of orbit, as is standard protocol, before being replaced by the newer Tiangong-2.

However, China lost control of the space station back in 2016, as its orbit zeroed in on Earth, unable to control its altitude.

At the time, all they knew was that it would make landfall anywhere October 2017 and April 2018, but with no idea where.

Reuters

However, as the station continues to plummet, it becomes gradually easier to calculate its reentry date from its trajectory. In early March, scientists could pinpoint its crash somewhere near the end of this month. Now, we have an even more accurate estimate of March 31, give or take a few days.

Unfortunately, as hard as it is to predict when Tiangong-1 will crash, predicting where is that much harder. The space station circles the Earth several times a day, meaning it could come down literally anywhere, and we won¡¯t know until right before it happens.

Luckily, you¡¯re not likely to look up in the sky and see a giant hunk of metal hurtling towards you. The satellite is likely to burn up completely in the atmosphere by the time it reaches the ground, as was the original intent of the Chinese anyway. On the off chance that some pieces do end up hitting the Earth, it¡¯s most likely they¡¯ll end up in the vast swathes of uninhabited ocean of our planet.

Then again, if you do happen to be near enough to the reentry point, it¡¯ll definitely make a visual spectacle worth catching. So keep your eyes peeled for a giant fireball near the end of the month.