Another Dead Satellite Is Blindly Plummeting to Earth

Not again! Another falling satellite poses new threat

We, as in all 6 billion of us, dodged a potential catastrophe last week when debris from a 6-ton satellite plummeted into a remote area of the south Pacific Ocean. Now scientists are hoping we’ll be just as lucky the second time around when another one is scheduled to drop as early as next month.

This time it’s the defunct German Roentgen Satellite (ROSAT) that will be in a state of aimless free fall sometime in late October or early November. The X-ray space observatory is less than half the weight of the URAS (2.4-tons), but has an orbit that ranges from latitudes of 53 degrees north and south, putting it in a position where it can threaten a wide region that stretches from Canada to South America. And while much of the spacecraft will disintegrate during it’s rapid descent, German Aerospace Agency officials predict that as many as 30 large chunks of debris — a combined mass of 1.6 tons — is expected to survive re-entry.



[link to www.smartplanet.com]