NASA’s defunct research satellite ERBS, which has been orbiting in space for 38 years, entered Earth’s atmosphere shortly before midnight (Monday morning 05:00 CET), where most of it burned up. Some parts fell into the Bering Sea off the coast of Canada, NASA reports on its website.
The heavy Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) was launched on October 5, 1984 aboard the space shuttle “Challenger” and deployed into space to measure the Earth’s radiation intensity and the amount of stratospheric aerosol gas.
Transmitted data to Earth for 21 years
For 21 of its 38 years in space, ERBS, originally designed to last only two years, sent ozone layer data back to Earth. The mission finally ended on October 14, 2005 for financial reasons.
The ERBS data played an important role in the Montreal Protocol’s decision to ban the emission of CFCs in industrialized countries.
The satellite, which weighs about 2.5 tons, has now fallen to Earth. A few days earlier, NASA had announced that its calculations showed that the chance that people could be injured in the crash was 1 in 9,400 (ie about 0.01 percent).
Source: Krone
I am an experienced and passionate journalist with a strong track record in news website reporting. I specialize in technology coverage, breaking stories on the latest developments and trends from around the world. Working for Today Times Live has given me the opportunity to write thought-provoking pieces that have caught the attention of many readers.
