BEIJING, 2 April (BelTA - Xinhua) - As Tiangong-1 re-entered the Earth's atmosphere on Monday, Chinese bid farewell to the experimental space lab, which is regarded as a pioneer of China's future space station.
The space lab re-entered the Earth's atmosphere at around 8:15 a.m. on Monday over the South Pacific, and was mostly burnt up in the atmosphere, the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) said.
Launched at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China on Sept. 29, 2011, Tiangong-1 was tasked to test the technologies in rendezvous and docking between spacecraft and to accumulate experience for developing a space station.
It had successfully docked with Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, and was visited by six astronauts, including two females.
Tiangong-1 was in service for four and a half years, two and a half years longer than its designed life, making important contributions to China's manned space cause, paving the way for China to become the third country in the world to build a permanent space station around 2022.
