“Still bigger than I like to see left in orbit to reenter, but much less concerning than the 22 tonne CZ-5B last month.
“Somewhat undesirable, but not worth any alarming news coverage in my opinion.”
Tiangong, which means “heavenly palace” is China’s answer to the International Space Station (ISS).
China’s space station, however, is much smaller and will only host crews of three astronauts at a time.
The ISS, for comparison, holds a crew of six people on average but has held as many as 11 at a time.
The Chinese station is also incomplete and China will need to carry out 10 launches in total to fully assemble the orbital laboratory.
