Old NASA satellite falls harmlessly from sky off Alaska

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP

By MARCIA DUNN

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — After almost 40 years circling Earth, a retired NASA science satellite plunged harmlessly through the atmosphere off the coast of Alaska, NASA reported Monday.

The Defense Department confirmed that the satellite — placed in orbit in 1984 by astronaut Sally Ride — reentered late Sunday night over the Bering Sea, a few hundred miles from Alaska. NASA said it’s received no reports of injury or damage from falling debris.

Late last week, NASA said it expected most of the 5,400-pound (2,450-kilogram) Earth Radiation Budget Satellite to burn up in the atmosphere, but that some pieces might survive. The space agency put the odds of falling debris injuring someone at 1-in-9,400.

Space shuttle Challenger carried the satellite into orbit and the first American woman in space set it free. The satellite measured ozone in the atmosphere and studied how Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the sun, before being retired in 2005, well beyond its expected working lifetime.



Read more: https://apnews.com/article/science-national-aeronautics-and-space-administration-bering-sea-alaska-83577b82dcf68cc8eb2553415b2dcaa2

[Aristus]

1. Challenger and Sally Ride are both gone.

[BumRushDaShow]

2. There was someone nearby who captured a video of it...

Link to tweet

Alaska's News Source
@AKNewsNow
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VIDEO: The satellite, which was put into orbit in 1984, plummeted back to earth last night over the Bering Sea.

This video of the apparent reentry was captured by viewer Louis Post from Nightmute, a community on the Bering Sea coast. 😲

DETAILS: https://bit.ly/3IBgFHk?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=snd&utm_content=ktuu
12:52 PM · Jan 9, 2023

https://www.alaskasnewssource.com/2023/01/09/old-nasa-satellite-falls-harmlessly-sky-off-alaska/

[Cheezoholic]

3. This is going to become a thing over the next few decades

Whilst most satellites (at least from US soil) launched in the past decade or so are equipped with systems that can guide their descent and re-entry to avoid any hazard to the ground and people, we've spent the better part of 5 decades just tossing these things out the proverbial window along the interstate. It just seems to always take forever to get the stupid out of us no matter what it is