NASA’s defunct satellite, which had been in space for two decades, came crashing down to Earth on Wednesday night. The estimated chance of it hitting anyone on Earth was low and thankfully this prediction proved to be true.
The satellite, known as the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), was launched by NASA back in 1991 and weighed 11 tons when it first entered orbit. It provided valuable data about atmospheric chemistry until its mission ended five years ago in 2005.
Since then, the UARS has slowly been descending through our atmosphere with no control over its trajectory or speed due to a lack of fuel onboard the craft. Scientists were able to estimate that most pieces would burn up during re-entry while some larger parts may have survived intact but not pose any threat of harm due to their small size and weight compared with other objects entering our atmosphere daily from space debris, such as meteors etc.
Fortunately, all predictions are held and there are no reports of damage caused by falling debris from UARS anywhere around the world at this time – proving once again how prepared we are for these kinds of events even after two decades since launch!
Read more at MSN
