class=”title SZ11 c7″> The GOCE satellite was launched in 2009 to measure the gravity of the Earth. / Credits: ESA There are more than a few hours. The satellite Goce – a big baby a ton and 5 meters long – began its fall to Earth. His tank 41 pounds no longer contains any of xenon, a noble gas which served as fuel. The spacecraft, launched in 2009 to measure the gravity of the Earth has left its orbit at 224 km altitude. According to the European Space Agency, it should enter the atmosphere on the night of Sunday to Monday. It will explode at an altitude of approximately 80 kilometers.
Fifty fragments
According to Prof. Prof. Heiner Klinkrad specialist space debris to the European Space Agency, only a small fraction of the satellite should touch the surface of the Earth. “About 20% or 200 pounds of debris dozens of fragments,” said the person on the blog of the ESA.
“The risk of being hit by debris from spacecraft is 65,000 times smaller than that of being struck by lightning,” further states Christoph Steiger, CEO of Goce at the European Space Agency (Esa).
“In 56 years of space flight, no objects built by man and landed on Earth has caused human dmg” adds Heiner Klinkrad.
Read also: the Goce satellite will soon crash into Earth: five questions on a crash
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