 The Permanent Mission of China to the United Nations informed the Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space that the Tiangong-1 had ceased functioning on 16 March 2016.On 21 March 2016, the Manned Space Engineering Office announced that they had disabled data service, since the space station had operated two-and-a-half years longer than its intended two-year service plan.According to the office, the space laboratory was under continued and close monitoring until it finally burned up in the Earth's atmosphere during an uncontrolled re-entry.