China’s first space station just burned up over the South Pacific

The Tiangong-1 reentered the Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific on Monday morning, reports Reuters. The reentry and destruction of the Tiangong-1 had long been planned by China’s space authority, who confirmed that a “vast majority” of the spacecraft burned up during reentry, though external experts say some pieces of debris likely made it into the ocean. Also known as the “Heavenly Palace 1,” the Tiangong-1 was launched in 2011 to carry out docking and orbiting experiments in preparation for China’s permanent space station, which is set to go into orbit in 2023.