End of Orbit
The station has a service life of ten years. Chinese manned spacecraft use deorbital burns to slow their velocity, resulting in their re-entry to the earths atmosphere. Vehicles carrying a crew have a heat shield which prevents the vehicles destruction caused by friction with the Earth's atmosphere. The CSS has no heat-shield, however small parts of space stations reach the surface of the Earth, so uninhabited areas are targeted by de-orbit manoeuvres.
Read more about this topic: Chinese Space Station
Famous quotes containing the word orbit:
“The Fitchburg Railroad touches the pond about a hundred rods south of where I dwell. I usually go to the village along its causeway, and am, as it were, related to society by this link. The men on the freight trains, who go over the whole length of the road, bow to me as to an old acquaintance, they pass me so often, and apparently they take me for an employee; and so I am. I too would fain be a track-repairer somewhere in the orbit of the earth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)