Tiangong-1

Tiangong-1 (Chinese: 天宫一号; pinyin: Tiāngōng yīhào; lit. 'Heavenly Palace 1') was China's first prototype space station. It orbited Earth from September 2011 to April 2018. During development, it was known as the target vehicle, reflecting its primary role as an experimental testbed for demonstrating orbital rendezvous and docking, and secondarily as a crewed laboratory for scientific research during its two years of active service. Tiangong-1 was launched uncrewed on 29 September 2011 aboard the first Long March 2F/T, an upgraded version of China's human-rated launch vehicle. It was the first operational component of the Tiangong program, which later led to the launch of the modular Tiangong space station in 2021. Tiangong-1 was initially expected to be deorbited in 2013 and replaced by the larger Tiangong-2 and Tiangong-3 stations over the following decade, but it remained in orbit until 2 April 2018. Three Shenzhou spacecraft visited Tiangong-1 during its operational lifetime. The first, the uncrewed Shenzhou 8, successfully docked with the module in November 2011. The crewed Shenzhou 9 mission docked in June 2012, followed by the crewed Shenzhou 10 mission in June 2013. The crewed missions included China's first two female astronauts, Liu Yang and Wang Yaping. On 21 March 2016, the China Manned Space Engineering Office announced that contact with the station had been lost. Unable to conduct a controlled deorbit, Tiangong-1 made an uncontrolled re-entry into Earth's atmosphere over the southern Pacific Ocean, northwest of Tahiti, on 2 April 2018 at 00:16 UTC.