GOCE – Behind The Black – Robert Zimmerman

GOCE has returned to Earth, breaking up somewhere over Antarctica, Siberia, or the Indian or Pacific Oceans.

November 11, 2013 10:10 am Robert Zimmerman

GOCE has returned to Earth, breaking up somewhere over Antarctica, Siberia, or the Indian or Pacific Oceans.

No damage from any pieces has been reported, which isn’t surprising considering the areas it might have come down.

ESA has issued an update on when and where they think GOCE will impact the Earth.

November 10, 2013 9:08 am Robert Zimmerman

Chicken Little report: ESA has issued an update on when and where they think GOCE will impact the Earth.

You can see the ground tracks of the orbits here. It looks like the thing does have a chance of coming down over the U.S., should it come down in the early part of the prediction.

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Engineers now expect the European GOCE research satellite to crash to Earth either late Sunday or on Monday.

November 8, 2013 4:16 pm Robert Zimmerman

Engineers now expect the European GOCE research satellite to crash to Earth either late Sunday or on Monday.

Some pieces are going to reach the Earth’s surface, so be prepared to duck. You can see the predicted orbital path here.

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The abandoned European gravity research satellite GOCE is going to crash to Earth in about two weeks.

October 22, 2013 9:01 am Robert Zimmerman

Chicken Little report: The abandoned European gravity research satellite GOCE is going to crash to Earth in about two weeks.

The probe is large enough for some pieces to survive and hit the surface.

Another large satellite is about to fall to Earth.

September 11, 2013 10:07 am Robert Zimmerman

Chicken Little report: Another large satellite is about to fall to Earth.

Current estimates suggest this could occur anytime between the end of this month and the start of November. When it does, the one-tonne GOCE will plunge rapidly through the atmosphere, burning up as it descends. “Some satellites take decades to come back after finishing operations; we will re-enter in no more than three weeks,” says Esa mission manager Dr Rune Floberghagen. Modelling work indicates that perhaps up to 25% of the spacecraft may survive all the way to the surface.

The odds of this debris hitting anything significant is very small. It can happen however.

a giant potato in space

March 31, 2011 12:19 pm Robert Zimmerman

A giant potato in space.

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