NASA’s Earth exploration satellite (ERBS) re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 11:04 p.m. EST on Sunday, Jan. 8, after nearly 40 years in space.
The U.S. Department of Defense said the Earth exploration satellite was put into orbit in 1984 and weighed 2,450 kilograms. It re-entered orbit on 8 local time and crashed into the Bering Sea, a few hundred miles from Alaska, USA.
NASA says the satellite’s main body will burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, but some bits and pieces will survive re-entry and the risk of harm to anyone on Earth is very low — about 1 in 9,400. There have been no reports of injuries to people or damage to buildings from falling satellite debris.
▲ ERBS satellite
NASA says that by crashing into the atmosphere and destroying, it will allow the satellite to deorbit more gracefully and reduce the risk of creating space debris. The satellite was launched in 1984 before there was so much space junk in space.
The ERBS satellite was launched from the Space Shuttle Challenger on Oct. 5, 1984, as part of NASA’s three-satellite Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) mission. It carried three instruments, two to measure the Earth’s radiative energy balance and one to measure stratospheric composition, including ozone ERBS far exceeded its expected two-year lifetime and operated until it was retired in 2005.
