Defunct NASA spacecraft returns to Earth after 21 years

[Flying High]

A NASA satellite that observed solar flares and helped scientists understand the sun’s powerful bursts of energy will fall to Earth this week, almost 21 years after it was launched.



The retired Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) spacecraft, which launched in 2002 and was decommissioned in 2018, is expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere Wednesday at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET, according to NASA.



The agency expects most of the 660-pound spacecraft to burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, but some components are expected to survive reentry. The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth as a result of RHESSI’s return is low — approximately 1 in 2,467, according to NASA.



www.cnn.com/2023/04/19/world/nasa-satellite-reentry-scn/index.html

[deyana]

Interesting. I am wondering whereaouts it will fall?

[Deleted]

Reminds me of when Skylab came down, it was much bigger of course and generated a lot of attention.


Skylab had a mass of 199,750 pounds (90,610 kg) with a 31,000-pound (14,000 kg) Apollo command and service module(CSM) attached[4]and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and several hundred life science and physical science experiments. 

link

[sauerkraut]

Some Russia space craft fell to Earth many years ago and it landed in Northern Canada in the middle of no-where but the problem was the craft had radioactive material on it and it scattered around as it crashed.