---
title: "China’s Tiangong-2 Space Station Will Fall Out of the Sky Friday"
description: "China is about to decommission its Tiangong-2 space station by rocketing it toward a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean dubbed the \"spacecraft cemetery.\""
date: "2019-07-18"
modified: "2019-07-18"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-tiangong2-space-station"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "china"
  - "space"
  - "the digest"
  - "tiangong-2"
---

# China’s Tiangong-2 Space Station Will Fall Out of the Sky Friday

![China is about to decommission its Tiangong-2 space station by rocketing it toward a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean dubbed the "spacecraft cemetery."](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/china-tiangong2-space-station.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: CMSE/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Death Throes

On Friday, China's space station Tiangong-2 will be formally decommissioned — in brutal fashion.

Tiangong-2 will fire up its thrusters and aim itself straight at an isolated patch of the Pacific Ocean, *[New Scientist](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2210536-chinese-space-station-tiangong-2-is-about-to-fall-from-space/>)*[ reports](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2210536-chinese-space-station-tiangong-2-is-about-to-fall-from-space/>), marking the end of the prototype space station's three-year journey in orbit.

## Planned Obsolescence

China always planned to decommission Tiangong-2. All of the research and missions planned for the space station are done, per *New Scientist*, so now there's no reason to leave it in orbit, where it's [cluttering up the night sky](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/removedebris-satellite-harpoon-space-debris>).

Tiangnog-2 will crash down to make room for China's full-sized and more permanent space station, [expected to be launched](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/china-announces-space-station-launch>) in 2020.

## Final Resting Place

Most of Tiangong-2 will be incinerated into nothingness as it re-enters Earth's atmosphere. But some fragments will survive re-entry, so those are being launched [toward Point Nemo](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/deep-sea-graveyard-dead-spacecraft>), a remote patch of the Pacific Ocean nicknamed the "spacecraft cemetery."

Once it's there, Tiangong-2 will rest for — presumably — eternity alongside hundreds of discarded rockets, satellites, and other spacecraft.

**READ MORE:** *[Chinese space station Tiangong-2 is about to fall from space](<https://www.newscientist.com/article/2210536-chinese-space-station-tiangong-2-is-about-to-fall-from-space/>)* \[*New Scientist*\]

**More on space stations:** *[The Chinese Space Station Has Crashed in the Pacific. Why Was It So Hard to Track?](<https://futurism.com/chinese-space-station-crash>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)