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The
European Space Agency states that one of its research satellites has
re-entered Earth's atmosphere early Monday. NPR reports that more than a
ton of electronics, including an ion engine and sensors helping
variations of gravity to be detected were on ...
Satellite Plummets To Earth, Crash Landing In Atlantic Ocean Near Falkland Islands
Nov 11, 2013 04:15 PM EST
(Photo : ESA)
NPR reports that more than a ton of electronics, including an ion engine and sensors helping variations of gravity to be detected were on board as the 2,425-pound European GOCE satellite ended its four-year mission, crash landing into the South Atlantic Ocean.
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The European Space Agency says that GOCE (Gravity Field and
Steady-State Ocean Circular Explorer) nicknamed "The Space Ferrari"
experienced "atmospheric interface" at 7:16 PM ET on Sunday, where the
satellite barreled into Earth's atmosphere at less than 300 nautical
miles south of the Falkland Islands."While most of the 1100 kg satellite disintegrated in the atmosphere, an estimated 25 percent reached Earth's surface,"
The reason that it fell to the Earth was because it ran out of fuel last month, where the countdown to its destructive return to Earth began. However, it did continue to send data to ESA in its final hours, giving observations on the ocean currents, air density and wind speeds in the atmosphere.
Scientists were unsure as to where it would land, where EAS said on Sunday, "The most probable reentry area lies on a descending orbit pass that mainly runs across the Pacific and the Indian Oceans."
ESA officials have downplayed the concerns from people who were concerned about a car-size orbiter crash-landing somewhere on Earth.
"Statistically speaking, it is 250,000 times more probable to win the jackpot in the German Lotto than to get hit by a GOCE fragment," according to the head of ESA's Space Debris Office, Heiner Klinkrad.
"The one-ton GOCE satellite is only a small fraction of the 100-150 tonnes of man-made space objects that reenter Earth's atmosphere annually," Klinkrad says. "In the 56 years of spaceflight, some 15,000 tons of man-made space objects have reentered the atmosphere without causing a single human injury to date."
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