China's experimental space lab Tiangong-2 is expected to leave orbit and re-enter the atmosphere on July 19, China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced on Saturday.
Most of the spacecraft will be burnt up in the atmosphere, and a small amount of debris is expected to fall in the safe sea area in the South Pacific, CMSEO, which manages China's human spaceflight endeavours, said.
Tiangong-2, an improved version of Tiangong-1, is China's first space lab in real sense. It was launched on September 15, 2016 to test advanced life support and refueling and resupply capabilities via the crewed Shenzhou-11 and uncrewed Tianzhou-1 cargo missions, in preparation for constructing a large, modular space station in low Earth orbit.
China plans to launch a permanent space station by 2022.
The space lab has worked in orbit over 1,000 days, much longer than its two-year designed life.
Comprising an experiment module and a resource module, Tiangong-2 has a total length of 10.4 metre, a largest diameter of 3.35 metre and a take-off weight of 8.6 tonnes.
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All the experiments in the space lab have been completed. The spacecraft and the instruments on it are functioning well, CMSEO said.
Preparations for the controlled re-entry into atmosphere of Tiangong-2 are proceeding steadily as planned, it said.