China’s TianGong-1 orbital station is under control and does not pose a threat: expert says

Almaty. January 9. Silkroadnews – China’s TianGong-1 orbital station is under control and does not pose a threat, says Zhu Congpeng, a top engineer at the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, Singapore’s The Straits Times wrote.
“China’s Tiangong-1 space station is not out of control and does not pose a safety threat”, he told after the reports appeared that the station was falling towards the Earth.
In 2011, China’s first space laboratory, the “Tiangong-1” or “Heavenly Palace 1”, was launched into orbit to conduct experiments on docking within the framework of China’s ambitious space program aimed to create a permanent orbital station by 2023.
Originally, the Tiangong-1 was planned to be decommissioned in 2013, but China repeatedly extended the mission duration.
A delay in the space lab’s returning to the Earth’s atmosphere, which, according to China, was due in late 2017, led some experts to suggest that the space station may be out of control.
“We have been continuously monitoring Tiangong-1 and expect to allow it to fall within the first half of this year. It will burn up on entering the atmosphere and the remaining wreckage will fall into a designated area of the sea, without endangering the surface,” the agency quoted Zhu saying.
In September 2017, the station’s re-entry from the orbit was delayed to ensure “the wreckage would fall into an area of the South Pacific Ocean where debris from Russian and US space stations had previously landed”, the report reads.  
The California-based Aerospace Corporation, a non-profit group that works for the U.S. government, said on its website on January 3 that re-entry of the Tiangong-1 is unlikely to be controlled, but most likely will not pose a threat to people or property.
China’s space program is a priority for President Xi Jinping, who has called for China to become a global space power.
Beijing insists that its space program is designed for peaceful purposes, yet the U.S. Defence Department has stated “China’s program could be aimed at blocking adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis,” the publications says.