ROSAT, German Satellite, Crashed Over Asia's Bay Of Bengal

BERLIN -- Heavily populated Asian cities avoided a dangerous collision with space junk last weekend as a defunct German satellite crashed into the sea somewhere between India and Myanmar.

The ROSAT satellite re-entered the atmosphere at 0150 GMT Sunday (9:50 p.m. Saturday EDT) above South Asia's Bay of Bengal, but it remains unclear how much, if any, of its debris actually reached the sea's surface, the German Aerospace Center said Tuesday.

Most of the 21-year-old satellite was expected to burn up as it hit the atmosphere, but up to 30 fragments weighing a total of 1.87 tons (1.7 metric tons) may have splashed into the sea.

Scientists could no longer communicate with the defunct satellite, let alone control it.

Two Chinese cities with millions of residents each, Chongqing and Chengdu, were only minutes further northeast along the satellite's projected path, according to Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The 2.69-ton (2.4 metric ton) scientific ROSAT satellite was launched in Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1990 and retired in 1999 after being used for research on black holes and neutron stars.

A dead NASA satellite fell into the southern Pacific Ocean last month, causing no damage but spreading debris over a 500-mile (800-kilometer) area.

Since 1991, space agencies have adopted new procedures to lessen space junk. NASA says it has no more large satellites that will fall back to Earth uncontrolled in the next 25 years.

___

Online:

Comments

[zippertheslipper]

06:03 PM on 10/25/2011

One day, one of these satellites is going to fly into a nuclear power plant or someplace of high population, and then someone will have to pay, oh yes, pay for this.

[hackitoff]

05:25 PM on 10/25/2011

NASA says. Give me a break. There are cases where satellites have been put into orbit but contact is lost shortly afterwards meaning they are uncontrolled

[Dvmx]

04:52 PM on 10/25/2011

Cities and space junk don't "collide". A "collision" happens between two moving objects.

[StopMakingSense2]

04:52 PM on 10/25/2011

Small price to pay so the little people can get their MTV...

[jcgibber]

04:14 PM on 10/25/2011

Germans have 68 yrs of experiance on targeting spaceship inpacts. What went wrong? Middle of Pacific is alot bigger than downtown London.

[hackitoff]

05:33 PM on 10/25/2011

If they had done it right, the satellite could have hit North Korea, Iran, Syria, Pakistan or????

[den1953]

03:59 PM on 10/25/2011

Wonder if the new satellites come with a self destruct button?

[hackitoff]

05:35 PM on 10/25/2011

Not practical. That would add thousands of pieces of space junk which could endanger other satellites and the space station.

[SkyhawkIIAimer]

09:49 PM on 10/25/2011

Newer satellites are designed with the end of their lives in mind.

They are designed to break up completely after being de-orbited, or they are designed to go into parking orbits.

[glen11555]

03:53 PM on 10/25/2011

If it hit a Muslim in the Head and they Die...do they still get to be with 72 Virgins

[hackitoff]

05:27 PM on 10/25/2011

yes, but the virgins look like the satellite that hit him

[GOODDOC1]

10:00 PM on 10/25/2011

Depends on which head it hits!

[glen11555]

03:50 PM on 10/25/2011

Captain I'm giving her all she's got...Spock! we need more lithium crystals..Damn it Jim, I'm a Doctor not a Mechanic.

[Al Schrader]

03:42 PM on 10/25/2011

I invented a satellite capacitance power supply that lasts forever because it doesn't use chemical batteries but instead it uses capacitors. It allows control of satellites almost forever. It is inexpensive
and uses potassium salts fuel that also last almost forever and allow the satellite owner to re-enter the satellite on a predictable trajectory.. It can simply be included in the original satellite design.

For example, it can be used to prevent a "sensitive" satellite from ending up in the wrong hands.
I'd take 50K US for the drawing of it....Al-

[Rooftop Voter]

03:50 PM on 10/25/2011

Methinks that Al Schrader is the nom de plume for Baron Munchausen, the spinner of tall tales many years ago. What an imagination! Actually, I have you beat; NASA is sending ME a check for my ideas. Yep, they told me to wait by the mailbox.

[Al Schrader]

04:10 PM on 10/25/2011

(Nom de Plume means pen name) Who said it was an idea ? I already have the circuits.
When you have one that actually works, see if you can sell it before I do.....Al

[333Cathy]

08:22 PM on 10/25/2011

Rooftop:

LOL.

I joined HP a couple months ago and when things just get too hot or heavy on the posts I come read Al.

I call him Big Al.

And, I laugh. And laugh.

Thanks, Al.

[CharlesD]

04:16 PM on 10/25/2011

Actually, I sold that idea to dubya but I was never paid!

[Al Schrader]

04:33 PM on 10/25/2011

To who ?

[Mister Grumpy]

03:32 PM on 10/25/2011

And really...... if this space junk had fallen in one of the chinese cities, would anyone have noticed?

[Arnold Visconti]

03:28 PM on 10/25/2011

Look out you fools

[arthur-in-miami]

03:27 PM on 10/25/2011

I still do not understand how often this will happen and what responsibility a particular government will have to a property owner or individual or individuals survivor in the event that they are struck - eventually this will happen - so anyone out there got a clue at the real answer

[SkyhawkIIAimer]

09:54 PM on 10/25/2011

They now say that there won't be another major satellite crash for 25 years.

All new satellites are designed with end of useful life issues in mind.

This has been a problem since the 50's, and it's amazing that it's taken this long for space junk amelioration to be an issue.

[Hugh-Gee]

03:10 PM on 10/25/2011

"Two Chinese cities with millions of residents each, Chongqing and Chengdu, were only minutes further northeast along the satellite's projected path..."

Um...how many minutes? What is the orbital period?
For space flights, a typical orbit of the earth would take about 90 minutes. So, if it missed a city by "only minutes," what's that mean? "Only ten minutes" would be missing the city by "only" 2500 miles.
I'm left thinking this is just so much sensationalistic grabbage.

[Elroy Jetson]

03:09 PM on 10/25/2011

Maybe it can catch up and join that huge debris field floating to the USA from Japan. We need more German and Japanese Debri, after all. Keeps Wally world in business.

[rpokeytruck]

02:59 PM on 10/25/2011

Dang,I wanted a piece.