Uncontrolled European Satellite Plummets to Earth

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Facts

  • On Wednesday, the defunct European Remote Sensing 2 Satellite plummeted into Earth's atmosphere where it disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Alaska. No injuries or damage were reported from the reentry.1
  • ERS-2 met its demise after 30 years in space. The European Space Agency (ESA) reported that while most of the debris incinerated in the atmosphere, some pieces landed in the Pacific Ocean. Photos of the descent, occurring between Jan. 14 and Feb. 3, were released Monday.2
  • The ESA compared ERS-2 as being close to the size of a school bus and weighing more than 5K pounds. In a post about the event, the ESA said that at the time of launch, the satellite 'was the most sophisticated Earth-observation spacecraft ever developed and launched by Europe.'3
  • Launched in 1995, ERS-2 was designed to collect data on Earth's water, ice, and land surfaces. In commission of its duties, it also monitored natural disasters like floods and earthquakes.4
  • The satellite was decommissioned in 2011 when it was orbiting at 484.67 miles above Earth. After operations concluded, it was lowered to 354.18 miles above Earth, where the fuel and battery storage were discarded to prepare for reentry.5
  • This comes as the world's space agencies have reported more than 30K pieces of decommissioned equipment are floating in space, also known as space junk. These rogue and uncontrollable objects can be dangerous.6

Sources: 1Associated Press, 2Guardian, 3Space.com, 4NBC, 5BBC News and 6Livescience.Com.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Centre for International Governance Innovation. We owe life as we know it to satellites in orbit. Without satellites, we wouldn't have real-time communications, weather monitoring for catastrophic events like hurricanes and wildfires, systems for national security, and more importantly, a means to understand climate change and its impacts.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Guardian. There have been too many dangerous interactions with space junk caused by decommissioned or rogue equipment. But this junk isn't just a threat in the air, it could also cause a catastrophe when it lands in populated areas of Earth. There must be a global effort to reduce this human-created celestial threat.