WHAT IS TINGONG-1 (CHINA SATELITE)

Tiangong-1 (Chinese: 天宫一号; pinyin: Tiāngōng yīhào; literally: ""Heavenly Palace 1" or "Celestial Palace 1"") was China's first prototype space station. It orbited Earth from September 2011 to April 2018, serving as both a manned laboratory and an experimental testbedto demonstrate orbital rendezvous and docking capabilities during its two years of active operational life.^[9]

Tiangong-1 Target Vehicle
天宫一号目标飞行器

Plan diagram of Tiangong-1 with its solar panels extended
Station statistics
COSPAR ID	2011-053A
Crew	3
Launch	29 September 2011[1][2] at 21:16:03.507 CST
Carrier rocket	Long March 2F/G
Launch pad	Jiuquan LA-4/SLS-1
Reentry	2 April 2018 00:16 UTC ± 1 minute (JFSCC/J3)[3][4] 2 April 2018 00:15 UTC (CMSE)[5]
Mission status	Uncontrolled reentry[4]
Mass	8,506 kg (18,753 lb)[6]
Length	10.4 m (34.1 ft)
Diameter	3.35 m (11.0 ft)
Pressurised volume	15 m3 (530 cu ft)[7]
Days in orbit	6 years, 185 days

Launched unmanned aboard a Long March 2F/Grocket^[1] on 29 September 2011, it was the first operational component of the Tiangong program, which aims to place a larger, modular station into orbit by 2023. Tiangong-1 was initially projected to be deorbited in 2013, to be replaced over the following decade by the larger Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3modules, but it was still aloft through March 2018.

Model of the Tiangong Space Lab and Shenzhou manned spacecraft.

Tiangong-1 was visited by a series of Shenzhouspacecraft during its two-year operational lifetime. The first of these, the unmanned Shenzhou 8, successfully docked with the module in November 2011, while the manned Shenzhou 9 mission docked in June 2012. A third and final mission to Tiangong-1, the manned Shenzhou 10, docked in June 2013. The manned missions to Tiangong-1 were notable for including China's first female astronauts, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping.

1. On 21 March 2016, after a lifespan extended by two years, the China Manned Space Engineering Officeannounced that Tiangong-1 had officially ended its service. They went on to state that the telemetrylink with Tiangong-1 had been lost. A couple of months later, amateur satellite trackers watching Tiangong-1 found that China's space agency had lost control of the station^] In September, after conceding they had lost control over the station, officials speculated that the station would re-enter and burn up in the atmosphere late in 2017. According to the China Manned Space Engineering Office, Tiangong-1 reentered over the South Pacific Ocean, northwest of Tahiti, on 2 April 2018 at 00:15 UTC.