Get ready to witness the freefall of a retired NASA satellight from space back to the Earth. Yes! you heard it right. A retired Nasa satellite will crash on Earth in next couple of days, almost 21 years after launch. The spacecraft is around 300 kg and it is expected that most of its part will burn as it re-enters the atmosphere. However, a few of its component will not be burned and it was directly fal upon the earth. To be precise, the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) was retired in 2018 and has since been in a gradually decaying orbit. Launched in 2002, RHESSI was responsible for observing solar flares and coronal mass ejections from its low-Earth orbit position. Now, the question arises, if some components are expected to fall on Eath, will it be dangerous for people and when will be falling and where it is likely to fall? To know the answer continue reading-
NASA retired satellite falling date, time and everything we know so far-
As per reports, the US military predicts that the RHESSI satellite (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager), which was used to study Sun, would return to Earth about 9:30 pm EDT on Wednesday (7:00 am Thursday), with an uncertainty of +/- 16 hours. “Nasa and the Defense Department will continue to monitor re-entry,” a statement from Nasa said.
The majority of the spacecraft is projected to burn up when it passes through the atmosphere, although certain components are expected to survive re-entry. “The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is low – approximately 1 in 2,467,” Nasa said. After more than 16 years of successful operation since its establishment in 2002, RHESSI was decommissioned on August 16, 2018. The detectors were not turned back on after the sixth anneal due to communication problems, according to the space agency.
All about RHESSI satellite
The RHESSI spacecraft was launched into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) onboard the Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket and was pressed into service in 2002. The spacecraft functioned till 2018 before it was decommissioned. During its operational lifetime, the probe provided vital clues about solar flares and their associated coronal mass ejections, which release the energy equivalent of billions of megatons of TNT into the solar atmosphere within minutes and can have effects on Earth. It documented a huge range of solar flares, from tiny nanoflares to massive superflares tens of thousands of times bigger and more explosive. The spacecraft was decommissioned due to communications difficulties.
Aaron Carter's death reason revealed: What led to the pop singer's death at just 34?