Track Europe's falling, 2,000-pound satellite in real-time

Sometime this weekend, the sky will actually be falling. A defunct satellite from the European Space Agency the size of a Chevy Suburban is set to plunge to Earth somewhere between Sunday night and Monday afternoon -- and experts say there's no way to precisely determine where it will crash. Its orbit goes over the poles, and as the planet rotates the satellite whizzes over nearly every point on Earth. But GOCE, or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, ran out of gas last month and has been steadily sinking towards the Earth. The satellite had been orbiting at a very low altitude for its mission, just 161 miles above the planet. Indeed, GOCE’s orbit is so low that it experiences drag from the outer edges of Earth's atmosphere, the ESA said.

www.foxnews.com...

So this could make for an interesting weekend/ beginning of the week. Shall we take guesses where it might end up? I can bet there are some pretty smart minds here at ats that could get it real close.. I am gonna say over the ocean like usual, but am not gonna count my neighborhood out of the equation yet though. My luck has been such that it would hit very near to my house and a small piece would take out my truck as well.

Very cool! For those who don't want to click on anything from Fox News, here's the link:

www.n2yo.com...

It's fascinating to watch this thing move, I wonder who's going to get a front row seat to the light show when it comes down, assuming it's anywhere with people?

What's the largest man-made vehicle to ever re-enter the atmosphere? Sky Lab? A lot of people were concerned, but I don't think anyone saw it come back to earth. Don't these things usually just burn up before reaching the troposphere...except for a few small pieces?

Nyiah
Very cool! For those who don't want to click on anything from Fox News, here's the link:

www.n2yo.com...

It's fascinating to watch this thing move, I wonder who's going to get a front row seat to the light show when it comes down, assuming it's anywhere with people?

Really had to go there? Geez and just when I thought this forum was safe from the usual crap that floats around the other pages. Rest assured folks I don't think there is any spin on this particular article. By the way that link does not include an article about the situation for those who might be in need of the ins and outs of what is going on.....

Will fall on top of the white house..

reply to post by jaynkeel

Not everyone wants to add to the site traffic of something they don't support or like. All I did was link the tracking page directly, it's not like I usurped you with another article from somewhere else. Not a big deal, jeez.

EV150
Will fall on top of the white house..

We couldn't possibly get that lucky.

EV150
Will fall on top of the white house..

Probably, and they will blame Iran....prepare for war people!

On a serious note, if any of it does make it to ground, it will either be ocean or desert landing....

Dang, I wish they could give a better prediction rather than "some time this weekend".

I can't spend the entire weekend with my eyes to the sky in the hopes of catching a little light show whizzing by in 2.3 seconds flat.




Murphy's Law: It'll probably end up in my back yard where we spent a ton of money this summer building a new deck, flower beds, and a garden.

Pfft.

This specialist page at aerospace.org gives more accurate times for reentry than a newpaper website.
It also shows how satellite rentries happen all the freaking time and nobody cares... until for some strange reason one becomes unusually newsworthy.
By my count there have 46 so far this year already.

And its also worth mentioning yet again that the n2yo page does ***NOT*** do the "real time tracking", as they advertise.
They merely do a computational theoretical calculation of its orbit, based on (sometimes days old) orbital elements.
1 34602U 09013A 12342.25428641 -.00000762 19144-5 -15200-6 0 2923
2 34602 096.5841 004.5698 0005244 183.6399 176.4850 16.11508069218308

reply to post by Nyiah


Never thought of it that way!!! Good idea.

reply to post by alfa1


Good map
Can you tell me what this means:
The yellow track flies over me during night time
What does ground track uncertainty mean, it could touchdown along that track?

"Yellow Line – ground track uncertainty after predicted reentry time (ticks at 5-minute intervals)"

Ah! The Andromeda Strain! Just kidding!!

violet
Can you tell me what this means:
The yellow track flies over me during night time

The site has made a prediction of the exact time when the satellite will come down.
And the circle on the map shows the position of the satellite at that time.
But...
...of course the time cannot be predicted exactly, so the map also shows the position of the satellite for a few orbits before and also after that estimated time.
The track of the satellite is blue before that time, and yellow after that time.

And its also worth knowing that although the time the satellite will come down is unknown, the *path* that the satellite takes is exactly known very precisely. You can see that locations like Los Angeles and London can be safely sure of not getting it fall on them because the track does not pass over those places. Thats assuming the satellite falls during the predicted time, of course.

It seems this was posted by another member in september of this year in space exploration forum so mods close if needed, or leave be due to a different forum? Just wanted to add that update as I didn't see it when creating it....

I wasn't able to access N2YO site directly. "?" Located this on ESA.

ESA

Is it down....??
Looks like it...not showing up anymore.

try this
www.foxnews.com...

might have to refresh a few times. there's a lot of traffic on this site evidently

eta
another good site
www.satflare.com...

nvm

GOCE is not ready to give up yet. Latest report from www.satflare.com...#

Still the Altitude variation between 138-148 km, very slow degradation in altitude...gravity pull is not yet taken hold

Right now its starting to go over Peru, alt. 135

Just to close off this story, apparently it came down a few hours ago.
Somewhere along a path between east asia and antarctica.