A disused satellite crashed toward Earth on Sunday. NASA expects debris to reach the ground as well.
The so-called Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) weighs a total of 2,449 kilograms – or rather, it did. US space agency Nasa confirmed on Monday that the long-abandoned research satellite is returning to Earth after nearly four decades in low orbit. It is said to have already entered the atmosphere over the Bering Sea, between Russia’s far east and Alaska.
Experts anticipate that most of its mass will burn up on re-entry. According to NASA, some debris can also hit the ground and hit the ground.
ERBS data were key to the climate milestone
It was launched on October 5, 1984 on the space shuttle Challenger and installed nine days later by an astronaut in low Earth orbit.
View from the Space Shuttle Challenger during the deployment of the ERBS into orbit in October 1984.NASA
ERBS was part of a three-satellite mission to study Earth’s radiation intensity and ozone layer. His data were instrumental in the international decision to ban greenhouse gas emissions of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) beginning in 1989 as part of the Montreal Protocol.
Although the satellite originally only had a two-year lifespan, it has served for decades. On October 14, 2005, exactly 21 years after the start of operations, the ERBS project was scrapped for financial reasons.
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