Chinese space lab Tiangong-1 is expected to sink on Earth on Monday (Photo)

A laboratory outside Chinese space, Tiangong-1 reportedly will sink on Monday to Earth.

The Chinese space agency said the station would re-enter the atmosphere in the next 24 hours, in line with the forecasts of the European Space Agency (ESA).

Tiangong-1 was part of China's ambitious space programme and prototype for a station run in 2022.

It entered orbit in 2011 and five years later completed its mission, after which Periscope was expected to fall back to Earth, broadcasts

Most of the station will likely burn in the atmosphere, but some waste may survive to hit the earth's surface. The Office of Open China for Space Engineering said in the social media that the falling ship does not crash on Earth harshly, as in scientific films, but turns into an excellent rain (type meteor).

China confirmed in 2016 that it had lost contact with the laboratory outside of the Chinese Tiangong-1 space and could no longer control its behavior, so it is not known where it will end.

The European Space Agency (ESA) said re-enter “will take place somewhere between 43N and 43oS”, which covers a large stretch to the north and south of the equator.

Esa says this means the station may be somewhere from New Zealand to the U.S. Midwestern.

Its heritage level will grow steadily, as the atmosphere is much thicker”, Dr. Elias Aboutanios, deputy director of the Australian Centre for Research of Space Engineering, for the BBC.

“The station will finally start to heat up until it approaches 100km from Earth,” he says.

This will lead to the burning of most of the station and it's hard to know exactly what will survive since the station was not discovered by China.

The station can reach speeds of up to 26,000 miles / h (16,156mph)./Periscopi/