CHINESE SPACE STATION CRASH

An artist's depiction shows Tiangong-1

ADVANCING China's space programme is a priority for President Xi Jinping, who has called for Beijing-

*To become a global space power with both advanced civilian space flight and capabilities that strengthen national security.*

DARMSTADT :
Skywatchers will need sharp eyes and a lot of luck to catch a glimpse of China's Tiangong-1 space lab when it falls to earth this weekend, a space expert said on Thursday.

The craft is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere on Saturday or Sunday, but no one knows for sure where it will come down, Holger Krag, head of European Space Agency's Space Debris Office, told Reuters TV.''

It is very rare to see something like this,'' he said.

''It is the upper atmosphere that will create a drag that will eventually bring down the station. That drag is very, very hard to understand and to predict,'' he said.

Anyone lucky enough to be looking at the right part of the sky when Tiangong -1 starts its fiery descent will likely see a glowing object moving for several minutes, like a shooting star but slower.

The craft is expected to hit speeds of 27,000 km [16,777 miles]  per hour and partly burn up during re-entry.

The rest will break-up into fragments that could cover thousands of square kilometres, though the risk to people will be very small, experts promise.

''There have been in 13,000 tonnes of space hardware coming down in the whole history of space flight and there has not been a single-casualty reported,'' Krag said. [Reuters].