German satellite: Another one falls from the sky

The re-entry of ROSAT is currently expected between 22 and 23 October 2011 UTC.
All areas under the orbit of ROSAT, which extends to 53 degrees northern and southern latitude could (!) be affected by its re-entry.

WHAT are the odds that the Satellite will hit Setanta ?


Inquiring minds wanna know.

everybody stay calm.

A
R
T

Why? I'm getting sick of having to dodge bloody space debris! Make your ******* satellites so they burn up on entry!

And they always drop them on my hemisphere.

Thay are NOT bloody UNTIL thay hit.

Ferking pedant.

Calm down, d, calm down. I have reliable inside information that all satellites whizzing around up there have been programmed specifically to re-enter Earth's atmosphere somewhere over the Antipodes. That's just 'cuz we think you lovely folks deserve some special attention, fireworks and what-not. Be grateful.

Pedants can ferk.

Oh sure!!!!!

Has it fallen yet ???

Looks like the falling pieces of that old satellite will crash to earth this weekend, according to press releases the German Aerospace Centre.

I wonder if it will hit Setanta ?





David

Well, you're good at dodging! You're a wabbit!

A
R
T

SETANTA HAS MOVED TO OZ???

Shouldn't have to.

Maybe I 'm not up to date; has it been determined
that it will fall THERE ??

I thought that its trajectory had not yet been ascertained. I dunno.





David

Walter said that it might be as far as
" 53 degrees northern and southern latitude ".

A quick check reveals that 49 degrees North
is part of the Canadian border; not sure where he is in Canada. Maybe there is a chance.

As long as the political capital and interest are in the norther hemisphere, low earth orbit satellites will continue to put their perigee over the southern hemisphere. A deorbit will always occur where (or near) the closest point on a sat's original orbit. This is due to the fact that space vehicles are designed and built with end-of-life disposal. This is a good thing. Early space flight programs left a lot of junk in space. We track everything we can, which is about 20,000 man made objects in space. This ranges from a screw driver to old passivated satellites. It's actually better that we bring them to the ground now. I'm not familiar with the German Sat, but modern sats have controlled, not uncontrolled re-entry.

That said, it will be raining satellites on earth for the next 25,000 years. I think the oldest orbiting body is from the 1950s, and that's still in LEO. It's our MEO and GEO vehicles that will take multiple millennia to come down.

Hopefully, the LEO junk will come down on it's own in the next hundred years, and we'll be able to have more controlled de-orbits. Until then, stay nibble wabbit!

A bird, no it's a plane
R
T

Thay said on the TV News that it will break up into 30 pieces,
so the chances r multiplied by 3O.