China's spacecraft reenters atmosphere

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – China's space cargo ship on Tuesday re-entered the atmosphere in a controlled manner, the country's space agency said.

Tianzhou-5, which separated from the orbiting Tiangong space station on Monday, reentered the atmosphere in a controlled manner at 9:13 a.m. local time (0113GMT) on Tuesday, state-run Xinhua News said, citing the China Manned Space Agency.

"Most of the spacecraft's components burned up during the reentry, and a small amount of its debris fell into the predetermined safe waters of the South Pacific," the news agency quoted a statement from the space agency as saying.

On Nov. 12, last year, Beijing launched the cargo ship from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site in the southern province of Hainan, which completed a fast automated rendezvous and docking with the space station.

According to the space agency, this is the fourth cargo ship connected to Tiangong, currently manned by three astronauts from the Shenzhou XVI mission.

On May 5, the ship undocked from the Tiangong station and began a 33-day solo flight for experimental purposes. It reconnected to the space station in June.

Currently, the Tiangong station is linked with the Tianzhou 6, which arrived on May 11.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid