{"id":777525,"date":"2024-02-20T17:01:52","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T22:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=777525"},"modified":"2024-02-20T17:01:52","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T22:01:52","slug":"dead-european-satellite-ers-2-will-crash-back-to-earth-this-week-npr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spaceweekly.com\/?p=777525","title":{"rendered":"Dead European satellite ERS-2 will crash back to Earth this week : NPR"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n The ERS-2 was launched in 1995 and retired in 2011. It’s falling back to Earth this week.
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ESA<\/p>\n

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The ERS-2 was launched in 1995 and retired in 2011. It’s falling back to Earth this week.<\/p>\n

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Those who have irrational fears of rare but dangerous events should be on full alert on Wednesday: space junk is falling to Earth somewhere and there is an incredibly small chance it could hit someone.<\/p>\n

It’s coming down in the form of pieces of a dead European Space Agency satellite called European Remote Sensing 2 (ERS-2). The satellite was launched in 1995, retired in 2011, and has been gradually making its way back to Earth since then.<\/p>\n

The ESA’s predictions as of Tuesday afternoon are that the dead satellite will reenter the Earth’s atmosphere at 11:32 a.m. ET on Wednesday, give or take 4 and a half hours.<\/p>\n