An old NASA satellite is expected to fall to Earth today, April 19, but experts say the chances of it posing a danger are slim.
The cause of the decommissioned spacecraft, known as Rhessi, will fall into the atmosphere on Wednesday night, NASA and the US Department of Defense say.
Specifically, NASA said on Tuesday that the spacecraft’s re-entry site has not been disclosed, given the ongoing uncertainty over when and where it could crash.
Parts of it may fall to the ground
Most of the 300-kilogram satellite is expected to burn up on re-entry into the upper atmosphere, but some parts may fall back to Earth.
The space agency said in a statement that the risk of someone being injured from satellite parts falling to Earth is “low” – about one chance in 2,467.
The Rhessi spacecraft (short for Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) was launched in 2002 to study the Sun.
Before it was shut down in 2018 due to communication problems, the satellite observed solar flares as well as coronal mass ejections from the Sun.
It has recorded over 100,000 events in X-ray and x-ray images.
Source: Kathimerini
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