Chunks of deorbiting ESA satellite are expected to reach the ground

[Rick]

Chunks of deorbiting ESA satellite are expected to reach the ground

ESA's ERS-2 satellite is heading back to Earth this week and some substantial fragments are likely to survive re-entry, although the chances of anyone being injured by a hunk of space junk are vanishingly small.

The UK Space Agency (UKSA) posted some images of the doomed European Remote Sensing (ERS-2) satellite at the end of last week. As of today, ESA's Space Debris Office reckons that re-entry will take place 1114 UTC on February 21, give or take 15 hours.

More: https://www.theregister.com/2024/02/19/esas_ers2_satellite_deorbit/
And: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-space-agency-project-captures-images-of-satellite-returning-to-earth

[The Thing]

I've got a hardhat

[Rick]

Seems anything surviving re-entry went into the sea somewhere between Alaska and Hawaii...

[Rick]

Trash from the International Space Station may have hit a house in Florida

A few weeks ago, something from the heavens came crashing through the roof of Alejandro Otero's home, and NASA is on the case.

In all likelihood, this nearly 2-pound object came from the International Space Station. Otero said it tore through the roof and both floors of his two-story house in Naples, Florida.

Otero wasn't home at the time, but his son was there. A Nest home security camera captured the sound of the crash at 2:34 pm local time (19:34 UTC) on March 8. That's an important piece of information because it is a close match for the time—2:29 pm EST (19:29 UTC)—that US Space Command recorded the reentry of a piece of space debris from the space station. At that time, the object was on a path over the Gulf of Mexico, heading toward southwest Florida.

This space junk consisted of depleted batteries from the ISS, attached to a cargo pallet that was originally supposed to come back to Earth in a controlled manner. But a series of delays meant this cargo pallet missed its ride back to Earth, so NASA jettisoned the batteries from the space station in 2021 to head for an unguided reentry.

Otero's likely encounter with space debris was first reported by WINK News, the CBS affiliate for southwest Florida. Since then, NASA has recovered the debris from the homeowner, according to Josh Finch, an agency spokesperson.

Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center will analyze the object "as soon as possible to determine its origin," Finch told Ars. "More information will be available once the analysis is complete."

More: https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/04/trash-from-the-international-space-station-may-have-hit-a-house-in-florida/

[Rick]

Metal thought to be International Space Station trash rips through Florida home

Metal thought to be International Space Station trash rips through Florida home

Nasa investigates cylindrical slab believed to be part of discarded battery pallet that tore through Naples house
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Tue 2 Apr 2024 17.13 CEST
Last modified on Wed 3 Apr 2024 03.30 CEST

Nasa is investigating after a sizable chunk of metal believed to be part of a discarded battery pallet from the International Space Station crashed through the roof and two stories of a house in Florida.

Engineers for the American outer space exploration agency are analyzing the cylindrical slab, which weighs about 2lb and tore through the home in Naples on the afternoon of 8 March.

"It was a tremendous sound. It almost hit my son. He was two rooms over and heard it all," the homeowner, Alejandro Otero, told WINK News. "Something ripped through the house and then made a big hole on the floor and on the ceiling."

Otero said he was away on vacation when the object struck.

More: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/02/space-trash-florida-home

[Carole]

Oh my goodness.  Presume NASA will have to pay for the house repairs.

[Dave A]

As well as Nasa, wont ESA and Roscosmos be liable too

[Rick]

I expect they've been arguing over who foots the bill for weeks already...

I suspect they'll be a lot more careful about how they drop that kind of high density garbage out of orbit in future, though.