Space
ESA's GOCE Satellite Re-enters Earth due to Fuel Exhaustion, Causes No Damage to Life
Nupur Jha
First Posted: Nov 11, 2013 10:30 AM EST
European Space Agency's GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Monday, Nov. 11, around 01:00 CET and fell toward Earth after running out of fuel.
The satellite is said to have passed by Siberia's orbit, East Asia, the Western Pacific and Antarctica. The satellite collapsed and burnt while descending. Only 25 percent of the 1,100 kg weighing spacecraft is guessed to have reached the Earth's surface.
The GOCE, also known as "Ferrari of space" went empty on fuel in mid-October, which made the satellite descend more towards the Earth everyday and finally enter its atmosphere.
This gravity mapping spacecraft was launched in 2009, for a 20-month-long mission, which helped astronomers in mining data regarding Earth's varied gravity field, oceanographic data and other geographic details.
"The one-tonne GOCE satellite is only a small fraction of the 100-150 tonnes of man-made space objects that reenter Earth's atmosphere annually," Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA's Space Debris Office stated in a press release.
The satellite was propelled by an innovative ion engine, which allowed the spacecraft to have an extremely low orbit below 260 km above our planet's surface.
These incidents of spacecraft debris descending to Earth from space have been occurring every now and then with no known damage to life or property so far. "In the 56 years of spaceflight, some 15 000 tonnes of man-made space objects have reentered the atmosphere without causing a single human injury to date," Klinkrad stated.
Various spacecrafts have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in the past years, such as NASA's UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite), which dropped back to Earth in 2011 in South Pacific's isolated region. Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars probe too returned to Earth in 2012, it crashed into the Pacific without causing any harm.
Germany's ROSAT X-ray space observatory too ended up in flames after entering Earth's atmosphere in 2011 after circling Earth for 21 years in its orbit.
Many old satellites are parked in the geostationary orbit (GEO), which is located 35,786 km above Earth's equator. Low-Earth-Orbit spacecraft and debris are mostly dumped in the Pacific Ocean, also called the Spacecraft Cemetery, with the help of specialized gear.
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First Posted: Nov 11, 2013 10:30 AM EST
European Space Agency's GOCE (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer) satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Monday, Nov. 11, around 01:00 CET and fell toward Earth after running out of fuel.
The satellite is said to have passed by Siberia's orbit, East Asia, the Western Pacific and Antarctica. The satellite collapsed and burnt while descending. Only 25 percent of the 1,100 kg weighing spacecraft is guessed to have reached the Earth's surface.
The GOCE, also known as "Ferrari of space" went empty on fuel in mid-October, which made the satellite descend more towards the Earth everyday and finally enter its atmosphere.
This gravity mapping spacecraft was launched in 2009, for a 20-month-long mission, which helped astronomers in mining data regarding Earth's varied gravity field, oceanographic data and other geographic details.
"The one-tonne GOCE satellite is only a small fraction of the 100-150 tonnes of man-made space objects that reenter Earth's atmosphere annually," Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA's Space Debris Office stated in a press release.
The satellite was propelled by an innovative ion engine, which allowed the spacecraft to have an extremely low orbit below 260 km above our planet's surface.
These incidents of spacecraft debris descending to Earth from space have been occurring every now and then with no known damage to life or property so far. "In the 56 years of spaceflight, some 15 000 tonnes of man-made space objects have reentered the atmosphere without causing a single human injury to date," Klinkrad stated.
Various spacecrafts have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere in the past years, such as NASA's UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite), which dropped back to Earth in 2011 in South Pacific's isolated region. Russia's Phobos-Grunt Mars probe too returned to Earth in 2012, it crashed into the Pacific without causing any harm.
Germany's ROSAT X-ray space observatory too ended up in flames after entering Earth's atmosphere in 2011 after circling Earth for 21 years in its orbit.
Many old satellites are parked in the geostationary orbit (GEO), which is located 35,786 km above Earth's equator. Low-Earth-Orbit spacecraft and debris are mostly dumped in the Pacific Ocean, also called the Spacecraft Cemetery, with the help of specialized gear.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone