Following on from a previous post regarding the descent of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), it would appear that the bus sized piece of space junk safely re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere early on Saturday morning 24th September 2011.
By a stroke of luck the vessel plunged to earth somewhere over the southern Pacific Ocean about as far from large land masses as you can get, reducing any possibilities of damage or injury being caused by the 26 parts that would survive the fiery heat of re-entry.
After the launch of this satellite in 1991, NASA and other space agencies agreed to adopt new procedures in an effort to reduce space junk and lessen the possibilities of future satellites causing problems when falling back to Earth.
However, in the immediate future the German satellite ROSAT, launched in 1990 and weighing in at 2.5 tonnes is expected to fall back to Earth in late October or early November this year. Some 30 pieces of debris are expected to survive re-entry, potentially including sharp mirror shards, so we should all continue to keep looking warily to the skies for now!
By a stroke of luck the vessel plunged to earth somewhere over the southern Pacific Ocean about as far from large land masses as you can get, reducing any possibilities of damage or injury being caused by the 26 parts that would survive the fiery heat of re-entry.
After the launch of this satellite in 1991, NASA and other space agencies agreed to adopt new procedures in an effort to reduce space junk and lessen the possibilities of future satellites causing problems when falling back to Earth.
However, in the immediate future the German satellite ROSAT, launched in 1990 and weighing in at 2.5 tonnes is expected to fall back to Earth in late October or early November this year. Some 30 pieces of debris are expected to survive re-entry, potentially including sharp mirror shards, so we should all continue to keep looking warily to the skies for now!
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