Posted on 07/28/2023 8:30:25 AM PDT by Red Badger
The European Space Agency said it will control the re-entry of a satellite for the first time in history on Friday. Photo courtesy of European Space Agency
July 28 (UPI) -- The European Space Agency said Friday it will attempt to guide a falling 3,000-pound satellite through the Earth's atmosphere to make sure it completely burns up over the Atlantic Ocean.
Normally, satellites fall back to Earth in an uncontrolled fashion, and while most do burn up in the atmosphere, an average of about 20% of each satellite survives re-entry. The risk of harm to anyone on the ground is small, with debris mostly falling into the ocean. But there's still a chance of damage.
The ESA said it has been orchestrating a deliberate deorbiting to make sure its Aeolus satellite leaves no trace. The mission team is conducting engine burns to lower the satellite's altitude.
"The very good news is that all four maneuvers of Phase II were successfully executed," ESA said on its blog on Friday. "They began yesterday afternoon and continued through the night and well into the early morning. "Following last night's burns, Aeolus is already skimming the top of our atmosphere, already being buffeted by denser air -- our planet's protective shield -- in a preview of what's to come tonight. Aeolus is now sailing at an altitude below [100 mph]."
Holger Krag, head of ESA's Space Debris Office, said this is the first time to his knowledge that a re-entering satellite will be assisted back down to Earth.
"Today, we have 10,000 spacecraft in space, of which 2,000 are not functional," Krag said. "In terms of mass, we are speaking about 11,000 tons."
The Aeolus satellite had been studying Earth's winds from an altitude of about 200 miles, allowing weather forecasters to improve predictions of storms and other weather phenomena.
Don’t they have a special orbit where satellites go to die if they don’t die first ,LOL
It’s a ‘Hit or Miss’ proposition...............
‘Aeolus is now sailing at an altitude below [100 mph].’
A few questions come to mind.
km not mph.........................
BS. Every time we land a manned mission it’s controlled. But everyone gets a participation award these days…
Challenger and Columbia were not well controlled.
Challenger and Columbia were preventable disasters, but both missions were being controlled when everything went wrong.
Not funny.
Didn’t mean humor, just fact. They were both dark days.
Willy McCool was a company mate and classmate of mine at the academy. So nothing about those tragedies is humorous to me. That’s not what this thread was about. Not sure why you felt it necessary to toss in that fact.
These were not my words:
Every time we land a manned mission it’s controlled.
Just keep digging with the insensitive comments.
How can I make anything right?
We’re good. Don’t worry about it.
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