Experts: Rumors of Tiangong I fall untrue

Rumors suggesting China's Tiangong I space lab has been out of control and will plummet to Earth are untrue, according to experts.

In a refutation of the rumor, Zhu Zongpeng, the chief designer of the space laboratory system of the fifth research institute of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said that Tiangong I has been under close monitoring and is expected to be decommissioned in the first half of this year.

The craft will burn up as soon as it crashes into the Earth's atmosphere and the remaining debris will fall into a designated sea area without jeopardizing the ground, according to Zhu.

The space lab was launched Sept 29, 2011 and ended its data service on March 16, 2016 after completing its mission.

China's manned space engineering office is still updating its orbiting status. The latest report showed that the craft orbited the Earth at an average altitude of 286.5 kilometers, with a stable state between Dec 17 and 24.

It is international practice to control decommissioned large spacecraft orbiting near the Earth to crash into an abyssal region in the South Pacific, called the "spacecraft graveyard", according to Pang Zhihao, an aerospace expert.

China has rich experience in this regard. In 2009, the Chang'e 1 spacecraft was controlled to crash onto the Mare Fecunditatis area on the moon. In September 2017, Tianzhou 1, the nation's first cargo spacecraft, left orbit under orders from ground control and its debris fell into the "spacecraft graveyard".