A “dead” NASA satellite weighing 270 kg will fall to Earth
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A malfunctioning NASA spacecraft will fall to Earth in the coming days. This was reported in Space. The RHESSI satellite, which studied the Sun from 2002 until it was decommissioned in 2018, is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere around 9:30 p.m. on April 19-20. RHESSI is not a huge satellite. It weighs only 270 kilograms. Most of that mass will turn to ash and vapor during RHESSI’s fall, NASA officials said. NASA’s RHESSI spacecraft to study the Sun. Illustration: NASA “The risk of harm to anyone on Earth is low – about 1 in 2,467,” NASA says. The RHESSI satellite entered low Earth orbit aboard a Pegasus XL rocket in February 2002. The spacecraft studied solar flares and coronal mass ejections. RHESSI was decommissioned after more than 16 years of successful operation. X-ray observations had to be completed due to communication problems. RHESSI will be far from the largest piece of “space debris” that will fall uncontrollably to Earth. However, the impending fall of RHESSI is another reminder that Earth orbit is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. For example, global space surveillance networks currently track more than 30,000 orbital debris. According to the estimates of the European Space Agency, about 1 million objects with a width of 1 to 10 centimeters are currently orbiting our planet. The approximate number of pieces with a size of 1 mm or more is about 130 million. Even these tiny fragments can cause serious damage if they hit a satellite or crewed spacecraft, given their enormous velocities. Read also: NASA showed a green aurora from space. PHOTO
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