Doomed 'Ferrari of space' satellite to fall back to Earth -- somewhere ...

A European satellite is facing a fiery doom next month, when it is expected to begin falling from space to end a successful mission to map Earth's gravity. The spacecraft runs out of fuel in October, but exactly when and where it will fall to Earth isn't yet known.

The fiery re-entry of the Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite, which the European Space Agency has billed as the "the Ferrari of space," will occur about two or three weeks after the satellite runs out of fuel in mid-October, ESA officials said.

www.nbcnews.com...

www.bbc.co.uk...

Should be a great spectacular sight. Where it falls nobody knows.

Keep an eye on this website:
www.aerospace.org...

Phage
Keep an eye on this website:
www.aerospace.org...

Interesting site that. Thanks

That billion dollar one that just went up?

It is coming down. I can feel it.

# 57

if it lands anywhere near me i'll be crawling under it and waiting on a Medical Practitioner....what a claim that would be..

I think it's strange the people who send those things up there don't worry about where they land when they come back down.

Seems like there should be a contingency plan. I know they usually end up in the ocean or some rural area but eventually one of them are going to hit a major city and cause major damage.

reply to post by tweetybird0428
maybe that is what Puerto Rica is greaing up for?

reply to post by tweetybird0428

Seems like there should be a contingency plan.

There is in most cases. Fewer and fewer satellites will have uncontrolled reentries.

As far as Goce goes, it is estimated that out of the original 1,000 kilograms about 250 will "survive" reenty in the form of 40 or 50 pieces spread over a footprint about 550 miles long. So the odds of anything being hit are pretty remote.

But it might be a good idea to keep your karma in order for the next month just to be on the safe side.

Without this engine, Goce would rapidly fall to Earth. But the mission team reported here in Munich that Goce probably has sufficient propellant onboard to drive its engine until deep into 2014. [email protected]

reply to post by EnigmaAgent


Two different dates on fuel run out, will look for link to the team.
"deep into 2014"

Norad cat id 34602 helps when looking for it.


Anyone want a conspiracy? Why did NBC change date of fuel run out from deep into 2014 to mid Oct?
It is the same article without the date change?

Why do they wait for it to run out of fuel and return to earth on its own?
Surely it would be safer to use the last remaining fuel to make sure it lands in an ocean or something

donlashway
Two different dates on fuel run out, will look for link to the team.
"deep into 2014"

Where did you find that 2014 quote? I can only find that text on a 2011 page, here.

Here more info on it re-entry in 3 week

www.satflare.com...

reply to post by ArMaP


ops second link 2nd link

trillium have a look at 2nd link, too.

donlashway
ops second link 2nd link

I'm sorry, but I looked at the whole page, did a search and couldn't find it anywhere.

Trillium
Here more info on it re-entry in 3 week

www.satflare.com...

re-entry you say....that's about all my gf ever seems interested in...

reply to post by ArMaP


It has changed.
My quote was from the second link now changed interesting?
First I wondered why the date was changed now someone put in the effort to change the article, interesting?

reply to post by EnigmaAgent


Update From Aerospace Corp. Thanks Phage
aerospace corp link to GOCE satellite

Predicted Reentry Time: 11 NOV 2013 02:30 UTC ± 15 hours

Prediction Epoch: 08 NOV 2013 15:33:10.017 UTC

Predicted Reentry Time time at which a reentering object might first become visible due to aerodynamic heating, corresponding to an altitude of ~120 km (~65 nmi), in units of UTC; for a high-eccentricity orbit, the perigee may actually be much less than 120 km, which may lead to on-orbit fragmentation of the object Prediction Epoch the most recent elements epoch used to perform the reentry prediction, in units of UTC

Legend Yellow Icon – location of object at predicted reentry time Orange Line – area of visibility at the predicted reentry time for a ground observer Blue Line – ground track uncertainty prior to predicted reentry time (ticks at 5-minute intervals) Yellow Line – ground track uncertainty after predicted reentry time (ticks at 5-minute intervals) White Line – day/night divider at predicted reentry time (Sun location shown by White Icon) Pink Icon – vicinity of eyewitness sighting Note: Possible reentry locations lie anywhere along the blue and yellow ground track.

So coming down soon.
Might be a sight to see?
Imagine what you could get for a piece of that space junk?

May be here the one

donlashway
reply to post by EnigmaAgent

 

Update From Aerospace Corp. Thanks Phage
aerospace corp link to GOCE satellite

Predicted Reentry Time: 11 NOV 2013 02:30 UTC ± 15 hours

Prediction Epoch: 08 NOV 2013 15:33:10.017 UTC

You do know that these program will stil show them going around after they have gone down

and those projection could be out by as much as 5 to 15 minute off in a fast fall

Predicted Reentry Time time at which a reentering object might first become visible due to aerodynamic heating, corresponding to an altitude of ~120 km (~65 nmi), in units of UTC; for a high-eccentricity orbit, the perigee may actually be much less than 120 km, which may lead to on-orbit fragmentation of the object Prediction Epoch the most recent elements epoch used to perform the reentry prediction, in units of UTC

Legend Yellow Icon – location of object at predicted reentry time Orange Line – area of visibility at the predicted reentry time for a ground observer Blue Line – ground track uncertainty prior to predicted reentry time (ticks at 5-minute intervals) Yellow Line – ground track uncertainty after predicted reentry time (ticks at 5-minute intervals) White Line – day/night divider at predicted reentry time (Sun location shown by White Icon) Pink Icon – vicinity of eyewitness sighting Note: Possible reentry locations lie anywhere along the blue and yellow ground track.

So coming down soon.
Might be a sight to see?
Imagine what you could get for a piece of that space junk?

edit on 8-11-2013 by donlashway because: (no reason given)