Defunct Chinese space lab plunges back to Earth

A defunct uncontrolled Chinese space laboratory re-entered the Earth's atmosphere today and plunged in the South Pacific, Chinese officials said.

Eight-tonne Tiangong-1 was mostly burnt up in the atmosphere, China's Manned Space Engineering Office said.

It re-entered in the central region of the South Pacific at around 8:15 am Beijing time, it said.

State-run Xinhua news agency reported that the space lab was mostly burnt up in the atmosphere, quoting the monitoring and analysis of the Beijing Aerospace Control Centre and relevant organisations.

Tiangong-1 was launched on September 29, 2011 and its service ended in March 2016. It has docked with Shenzhou-8, Shenzhou-9 and Shenzhou-10 spacecraft, and undertaken a series of tasks, making important contributions to China's manned space cause.