German satellite re-enters Earth's atmosphere
October 22nd, 2011
04:29 PM ET

German satellite re-enters Earth's atmosphere

[Updated 10:54 p.m. ET] A defunct satellite has entered the atmosphere, the German Aerospace Center reported Sunday morning.

"There is currently no confirmation if pieces of debris have reached Earth's surface," it said. Up to 30 pieces of space debris could hit land or water.

[Posted 4:29 p.m. ET] The earliest possible re-entry of a decommissioned German satellite into the Earth's atmosphere was pushed back to Saturday evening Eastern time, the German space agency's website said.

The agency originally had projected Saturday afternoon as the earliest re-entry for the satellite, which could include up to 30 individual pieces of debris.

As of 4 p.m. ET Saturday, the agency's latest prediction narrowed the re-entry to a six-hour window during Saturday night.

"The largest single fragment will probably be the telescope's mirror, which is very heat resistant and may weigh up to 1.7 tons," according to the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The time and location of the Roentgen Satellite's (ROSAT) re-entry couldn't be forecast precisely, and officials estimated the fiery event to occur any time between 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday and 1:30 a.m. ET Sunday, the agency said.

FULL STORY
Post by:
Filed under: Germany • Space
soundoff (98 Responses)
  1. raven

    And has anyone heard from chrissy ? Those posts upset me. The lesser of two evils would be a nasty prank so thats what Im hoping they were.

    October 23, 2011 at 5:09 am | Report abuse |
  2. Yuan Yi Peng (袁毅鹏)

    [ SOS ] Complaint about Human Rights Violations by IBM China on Centennial

    Please Google:

    Tragedy of Labor Rights Repression in IBM China
    or
    How Much IBM Can Get Away with is the Responsibility of the Media
    or
    IBM detained mother of ex-employee on the day of centennials

    October 23, 2011 at 7:48 am | Report abuse |
    • RUFFNUTT

      Yuan, may I ask just exactly what this topic has to do with China or IBM? Here we're talking about German technology, without which the Russians would by now be light years ahead of us in space technology!!!

      October 23, 2011 at 1:55 pm | Report abuse |
  3. RUFFNUTT ( ex-nasa space shuttle comander)

    they took er jobs!!!!

    October 23, 2011 at 8:48 am | Report abuse |
  4. leeintulsa

    Well, uncrushed so far.. Hey, maybe the 1.7 ton heat-resistant mirror got chrissy..

    October 23, 2011 at 10:52 am | Report abuse |
  5. RUFFNUTT ( elfslayer & CAT HERDER )

    OR THE BOOGIEMAN..

    October 23, 2011 at 11:30 am | Report abuse |
  6. @fake RUFFNUTT

    May I ask what you have to do with anything? You are the most irrelevant person on the planet!!!

    October 23, 2011 at 3:46 pm | Report abuse |
  7. Justen beiber

    Hopefully it landed on my work building

    October 24, 2011 at 7:52 am | Report abuse |
1 2 3 4 5 6
« Back to main