A giant artificial satellite that spent 30 years in space and today it collapses

ArabiaWeather - The European Space Agency announced that it expects its satellite to fall through the Earth's atmosphere on Wednesday, after it got out of control. The pioneering European satellite, known as ERS-2, is expected to break into pieces as it enters the atmosphere. In its latest update, the agency explained that the satellite, which Earth has orbited for 30 years, may cross the atmosphere at 15:41 GMT on Wednesday evening. The European Space Agency provides immediate updates about this event through its account on the X platform.

--- ERS-2 reentry day thread ---

Our Space Debris Office currently predicts that the #ERS2reentry will take place at:

15:49 UTC (16:49 CET) today, 21 February 2024

The uncertainty in this prediction is now just +/- 1.76 hours.

The official 'ground track' of the satellite… pic.twitter.com/6x3SRvCtaA

— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) February 21, 2024

A giant artificial satellite that spent 30 years in space and today it collapses

The agency reported that it is difficult to predict the exact time and location of the satellite's fall. In its updates, it indicated that the moon is expected to fall over the Pacific Ocean after burning most of its parts. She indicated that any pieces that remain will be randomly spread over a ground path with an average length of hundreds of kilometers and a width of tens of kilometers.

According to the agency, the mass of the ERS-2 satellite is estimated at 2,294 kilograms after exhausting its fuel.

According to the agency, the weight of the ERS-2 satellite is estimated at 2,294 kilograms after exhausting its fuel. This satellite, along with its twin ERS-1, collected data on the planet's polar caps, oceans and land surfaces, and monitored disasters such as floods and earthquakes in remote areas. The data collected by ERS-2 remains in use today, according to the agency.

In 2011, the agency decided to end operations of the satellite and remove it from its orbit in order to reduce the chances of colliding with another probe, and to prevent it from being added to the growing ring of space junk orbiting the planet.

The European Space Agency considered that the risks associated with the return of satellites to Earth are very low.

The Guardian quoted James Blake, a specialist at the Space Awareness Center at the University of Warwick, as saying: “There are now thousands of active, retired satellites orbiting the Earth, and ERS-2 is the latest to make the return trip to Earth.”

Source: alhurra