中国“天宫一号”残片坠落到南太平洋

A defunct Chinese space lab met its expected end early Monday morning as its remaining fragments plunged into the South Pacific.

China's Manned Space Engineering Office said the Tiangong-1 spacecraft "mostly" burned up in the atmosphere.

Any pieces that failed to disintegrate during the fiery trip back to Earth fell harmlessly into the ocean.

It took about two hours for the craft burn up once it hit Earth's atmosphere.

There had been predictions parts of the space lab would land in the South Atlantic with some pieces posing a very small threat to people on the ground

Tiangong-1 was the size of a school bus and weighed eight and a half tons.

Tiangong-1 was the largest man-made object to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere in a decade.

It was launched in 2011 and served as an orbiting laboratory for manned Chinese space missions until officials determined its lifespan was complete. It was taken out of service in 2016.中国一个废弃不用的太空空间站星期一早晨走完其寿命最后一程，其碎片坠落到南太平洋。

中国载人航天工程办公室说，中国天宫一号的大部分在大气层中烧毁。

在坠落过程中没有烧毁的部分落到海面时没有造成任何损失。

天宫一号坠落穿过大气层的时间大约为两个小时。

早先的预测说，将会有一些小的未烧毁部件坠落到南大西洋，对地面的人构成非常小的威胁。

天宫一号的体积与一辆大巴车相似，重量为8.5吨。

天宫一号是10年来坠落到地球大气层的最大人造物。

天宫一号于2011年发射，作为中国太空造人飞行使用的空间站。空间站寿命被宣布终结后，中国2016年废弃了这个空间站。