When Tiangong-1 rocketed into the sky in 2011, optimists hoped the space station — literal translation: “heavenly palace” — would be a model for a permanent fixture among the stars, a space laboratory that was among humankind’s first footsteps in the Cosmos. So, when an out-of-control Tiangong-1 comes plummeting to earth in a superheated trail of plasma and space debris, it may literally be an April Fool’s joke. Scientists have known for more than a year that Tiangong-1 would eventually turn into a man-made meteorite after the station stopped responding to Chinese commands in 2016, according to Space.com.