'Space station ends Sunday'

darmstadt - A Chinese space station that is on its way back to earth is likely to disappear into the atmosphere on Sunday. Most of the space station will explode and burn. Some fragments can survive and crash on earth.

It is the space station Hemels Paleis-1. That was launched in 2011. In 2016 it turned out that China had lost control of the station. Gravity pulls the station closer and closer to the earth and it can no longer offer counter-gas. The station is now at less than 200 kilometers altitude, on the edge of our atmosphere.

The European space agency ESA keeps an eye on the orbit of the Heavenly Palace. What time the downfall happens exactly and where, can hardly be predicted.