Dead European satellite finally tumbles to Earth after spending 30 years in space

The European Space Agency's failed satellite, known as theEuropean Remote Sensing 2 (ERS-2) satellite fell back to Earth on Wednesday (Feb 21), somewhere between Alaska and Hawaii, bringing an end to its nearly 30-year life in space.

According to ESA, the pioneering satellite re-entered the atmosphere around 12:17 pm ET (5:17 pmGMT) and is believed to have broken into pieces, with the majority burning up while the remaining material plummetedinto the ocean below.So far, no damage to property or human life has been reported.

"We have confirmation of the atmospheric reentry of ERS-2 at 17:17 UTC (18:17 CET) +/- 1 minute over the North Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Hawaii," ESA Operations posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) whilst sharing Google Maps coordinates of where the satellite fell to Earth.

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The dead satellite, weighing 2,290 kilogrammeshad studied Earth's climate from its launch in 1995 until it was retired in 2011. It was alsoused for monitoring natural disasters like earthquakes or severe flooding in remote parts of the world.

In 2008, 13 years after ERS-2 launched, ESA adopted its first space debris mitigation policy to address the growing hazard that the debris in Earth orbit posesto current and future space activities.

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The re-entry process

The preparation to euthanise ESR-2 started way back in the summer of 2011 when66 reorbiting manoeuvres were performed by the ESA on it.

That process was aimed at using the remaining fuel of the satellite and decreasing its average altitude from 785 km to nearly 573 km. This helps decrease the satellite's risk of collision with space debris or other satellites.

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ESA had cleared that the fallingsatellite posed no danger or harm to anyone on Earth.

"The risks associated with satellite re-entries are very low.Our missions in Earth orbit are now increasingly designed to conduct controlled reentries at the end of their life that allow operators to accurately target over which region on Earth they reenter," informed ESA officials in a blog post.

ESA added that chances of being struck by lightning are 65,000 times higher than one's risk of being struck by space debris in a lifetime.

(With inputs from agencies)