Defunct Russian Reconnaissance Satellite Burns up on Re-entry into Atmosphere

The defunct Russian satellite, Kosmos-1220, expected to crash back into Earth at high speed, burnt up on reentry into earth's atmosphere.

The satellite's fragments burned up at 17.58 Moscow time (13.58 GMT), Colonel Dmitry Zenin, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry troops, told Itar-Tass.

The uncontrolled descent of the defunct Russian reconnaissance satellite through the Earth's atmosphere was confirmed by Russian officials, but they remain clueless about impact time and location as it may vary due to external factors.

"As of February 7, 2014 the fragments are expected to fall on February 16," Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin told the Russian news agency, Ria Novosti. "The exact impact time and location of the fragments from the Kosmos-1220 satellite may change due to external factors."

The space experts said that the satellite was a part of the Soviet naval missile targeting system and would make a harmless landing in the Pacific Ocean, lowering any threat or damage.

'What we have going for us is that most of the planet is covered with water, and highly populated areas are in the minority of our planet's surface area. So it is unlikely that satellite debris will cause injuries or major damage. Still, with such a reentry, we are playing the odds. This is a very real danger, given that a decaying orbit will carry this satellite down onto the planet," David Eicher, editor of Astronomy magazine, told the Fox News.

Launched on Nov 4, 1980, from Baikonur cosmodrome aboard a Tsyklon 2 rocket, the satellite was used to determine the position of the enemy naval forces. The mission came to an end in 1982.

The satellite weighs 4150.0 kg  confirms NASA. Media sources also reveal that the satellite is capable of carrying nearly 3 metric tons.

The head of the ESA's space debris office, Heiner Klinkrad, claims that in the last 56 years nearly 15,000 tons of space objects have re-entered Earth's atmosphere at breakneck speed without causing damage to humans.

In 1978 a different decommissioned Kosmos satellite crashed into an unoccupied area of Canada, which led to the spread of a large amount of radioactive material. In 2009, another Kosmos satellite crashed with a U.S. Iridium telecommunication satellite at 26,000 miles per hour and produced several fragments of space debris. Last year the European Space Agency's GOCE satellite had an uncontrolled re entry into the atmosphere but it landed harmlessly in water.

Space debris is a huge problem to functional satellites.  Scientists are working on lowering this threat. Last month, a team of scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory showed how using mini satellite that play the role of space cops, can clear space debris.