You Can Livestream the Last Moments of China’s Out of Control Space Station

Out of control Chinese space station Tiangong-1 is due to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere this weekend. The exact timing and location of its re-entry remains shrouded in doubt due to the unpredictable nature of its current orbit, and the chances of any of us being struck by debris from it are extremely low, but that’s not stopped plenty of speculation about what could happen as the space station breaks up.

Before it’s time to keep an eye out for falling metal however, the Virtual Telescope Project and Tenagra Observatoires are putting on a livestream of the space station’s “final passes across the stars.”

Update: The livestream is now finished, but you can watch it back below. It’s not exactly the 2001: A Space Odyssey-like footage we were hoping for, but you can see the bright speck of the space station appear – and enjoy some over-excited commentary as it does so – from around the 12 minute mark:

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Article Feb 08, 2018

Cover image: CMSE