Chinese space station 'out of control', will do best firework impression

The Chinese space agency has apparently lost control of its Tiangong 1 mini-space station, which is expected to return to Earth as a fireball. The Middle Kingdom's state media reported in March that the space station's systems had been shut down and the platform was officially retired. Now there's word from the science community that the controllers no longer have command of its systems and won't be able to bring it back down to earth in a controlled manner. "It wouldn't surprise me if that's the case, there have been rumors about it on the mailing lists for months," Jonathan Tate, director of the UK's Spaceguard Centre, told The Reg. More

(Source: The Register - Jun 11)