Griffith Observatory Sky Watchers Search For Space Junk

GRIFFITH PARK (CBSLA) — All eyes were on the sky tonight searching for falling space junk. The Chinese space station crashed to Earth several hours ago.

Crystal Cruz visited the Griffith Observatory where the space watchers were trying to get a good view.

The Chinese space station, Tiangong broke through the atmosphere over the Southern Pacific Ocean Sunday afternoon.

The Chinese space station was as large as a bus and scientists expected the majority of it to burn up before hitting Earth.

Rocket scientist, Olympia LePoint was confident we all would be OK.

"In the atmosphere is several layers and it goes through literally fire and we have debris, metal, plastics burning up and disintegrating," said LePoint.

LePoint says space debris is common.

"Space stations were not ever meant to be completely in the atmosphere and stay in the atmosphere," said LePoint. "Satellites are not even supposed to stay in the atmosphere forever. They do drop. This is something that is quite common for anything that we place to circulate around the Earth and be in its orbit."

Some visitors at the Griffith Observatory wondered where pieces of Tiangong would land.

"I sure hope it doesn't fall on my house," said visitor Iyonna Rivers.

As technology advances, scientists hope space stations will be able to last in space for a lifetime.