After six months, China has finally admitted Tiangong-1, its first space station, is plunging earthward and that it has no control over the fall of this 9,000 kilogram behemoth.

Chinese officials last week, however, only appear to have confirmed the news of Tiangong-1's demise, a fact reported by western media as early as last March. They did, however, reveal their space station will disintegrate in late 2017 but again failed to specify what part of the Earth will be affected by the re-entry destruction of Tiangong-1.

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Western media reports last March described the descent of Tiangong-1 as "out of control."

Based on past experience such as that with the Soviet Union's Mir space station, a decommissioned satellite or space station is retired by forcing it to burn-up in the atmosphere.

This type of burn is controlled. Most satellite re-entries are scheduled to burn up over the Pacific Ocean to avoid endangering people.

The China National Space Agency, however, isn't certain when Tiangong-1 will re-enter the atmosphere. Experts said this uncertainty seems to indicate the station has been damaged and China is unable to control its fiery descent.

This uncertainty increases the danger to people on Earth from the space station's destruction as it sheds pieces that plunge earthwards faster than speeding bullets.

China's Manned Space Engineering Office last March 21 quietly announced that all telemetry with Tiangong-1 had failed, leaving China with no ability to safely control the fall of the space station to Earth.

China planned to safely de-orbit Tiangong-1 in 2013 and replace it with Tiangong-2 this September and Tiangong-3 next year. It hasn't explained why this safe de-orbit of Tiangong-1 failed.

Chances are Tiangong-1 will rain whatever's left of it over the Pacific Ocean, probably within the boundaries of the "Spacecraft Cemetery" off the east coast of New Zealand. There is, however, the possibility its debris might smash into populated areas.

The fact Chinese authorities have been very quiet about Tiangong-1 might mean the space station is already in freefall, said Dean Cheng, a senior research fellow at the Asian Studies Center at the Heritage Foundation.

"That would seem to suggest that it's not being de-orbited under control. That's the implication," he noted.

Tagschina, China National Space Agency, Tiangong-1, Spacecraft Cemetery