Where will ERS-2, the runaway European satellite that reenters Earth today, fall?

After almost three decades in orbitESA’s ERS-2 remote sensing satellite is due to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere this year. February 21.

Predictions about when it will return to Earth will be discussed on February 21. 01:19 Spanish time with a range of +/- 25 hours.. The mass of ERS-2 at launch (with fuel) was 2516 kilogramsbut it is expected to disintegrate upon re-entry and most of the satellite will burn up before falling to Earth.

ESA released images of the spacecraft taken from other satellites on January 14, 28, January 29 and February 3, when ERS-2 was still in the distance The height is more than 300 kilometers.

Where will the ERS-2 satellite fall?

According to meteorologist Francisco Cacho, the particles are gathering weigh approximately 52 kg each one of them after passing through the atmosphere and most likely the satellite debris will fall into the ocean. In particular, the probability of them hitting a person is equal to 1 in 100,000 million, so it’s very low.

This is ERS-2.

Launched on an Ariane 4 rocket from Kourou in French Guiana. April 21, 1995ERS-2 was one of ESA’s first Earth observation satellites. ERS-2 observed Earth’s landmass, oceans, rivers, vegetation and polar regions using visible and ultraviolet light sensors. ERS-2 ceased operation in September 2011.

ERS-2 was launched into a sun-synchronous retrograde low-Earth orbit inclined 98.5 degrees to the equator. This orbit is typical for spy and Earth observation satellites as it allows for mission get images from key target sites at the same relative angle as the Sun, which is a useful attribute for interpreting images, Universe Today reports.

For context, recent high-profile re-entries include UARS satellite (6.5 tons, in 2011) and the huge Long March-5B launch vehicle that launched the main module of the Chinese Tiangong space station at the end of 2022 (weighing 23 tons)