On April 2, we said goodbye to Tiangong-1, China's first prototype space station. According to the China Manned Space Agency (中国载人航天局), Tiangong-1 re-entered the Earth's atmosphere (大气层) and some of its debris (碎片) fell into the South Pacific Ocean.
There are many spacecraft (宇宙飞船) that are still in orbit (轨道) above the Earth. After finishing their trips, they will all re-enter the Earth's atmosphere like Tiangong-1. There are two types of re-entries: controlled re-entry and uncontrolled re-entry.
Some satellites and manned spacecraft come back to the Earth in a controlled re-entry. Experts calculate (计算) the path of the falling spacecraft and its speed. They can guide the spacecraft to fall in a chosen area.
Some spacecraft may have problems while in space after a certain amount of time. These spacecraft come back in an uncontrolled re-entry. It is hard to tell when and where these spacecraft will fall until the last few hours. The US space station Skylab came back partially uncontrolled in 1979. Parts of the station fell in western Australia, but no one was hurt.
During re-entry, most of the spacecraft will burn up while passing through the Earth's atmosphere. Only a small amount of the debris will reach the ground. The debris typically ends up falling into the ocean, China Daily reported.
