Cliff Notes on the below:


The GOCE spacecraft is about 17 feet (5.3 meters) long and 3.2 feet (1 m) wide. It weighs about 2,425 pounds (1,100 kilograms). ESA scientists expect 25 to 45 fragments of the satellite to survive the fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. The largest could weigh up to 200 pounds (90 kg), according to The New York Times.

[Perhaps the 200 pound chunk will bean someone on the head.]


http://www.space.com/23541-doomed-fa...pacecraft.html

From above link:


A European satellite at the end of its mission is expected to fall out of space tonight. The only question is where its charred and twisted remains may fall.

According to European Space Agency predictions, the falling GOCE satellite could to Earth sometime Sunday night (Nov. 10) or early Monday. The gravity-mapping spacecraft ran out of fuel in mid-October and has been falling back to Earth ever since.

"The satellite is at an altitude of 147 km (91 miles), dropping at a rate of more than 1 km (0.6 miles) an hour," ESA's GOCE spacecraft operations manager Christoph Steiger wrote in a status update today, adding that the atmospheric drag on the satellite is too high to measure. "Given the fast altitude drop and change of environmental conditions, the end of flight operations is getting close."


The GOCE spacecraft is about 17 feet (5.3 meters) long and 3.2 feet (1 m) wide. It weighs about 2,425 pounds (1,100 kilograms). ESA scientists expect 25 to 45 fragments of the satellite to survive the fiery re-entry through Earth's atmosphere. The largest could weigh up to 200 pounds (90 kg), according to The New York Times.

Steiger wrote that temperatures at the nose of the sleek satellite keep increasing, but have not reached levels that would prevent GOCE from functioning.

ESA's GOCE satellite successfully completed its gravity-mapping mission earlier this year, and an uncontrolled fall from space was always to be its fate, ESA officials have said.

The 350 million euro ($467.8 million) GOCE spacecraft launched in March 2009 to measure the Earth's gravitational field with unprecedented detail, according to an ESA fact sheet. The satellite's name is short for Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer.

The spacecraft was powered by a Xenon ion engine, which allowed it to fly much lower than typical satellites. ESA officials dubbed to satellite the "Ferrari of Space" because of its sleek, fast design. Just after launch, GOCE flew at altitude of 159 miles (255 km) to measure Earth's gravity field and oceans. By August 2012, it had dipped to an altitude of just 139 miles (224 km).


GOCE is the latest satellite to meet its doom with a fiery, uncontrolled plunge from space.

In 1979, NASA's huge Skylab space station fell to Earth and rained debris over parts of Australia. In September 2011, NASA's defunct Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite dropped debris into the Pacific Ocean. One month later, in October 2011, Germany's ROSAT X-ray space observatory burned up in Earth's atmosphere after 21 years in orbit.

In January 2012, Russia's troubled Phobos-Grunt Mars moon probe fell from space after failing to leave Earth orbit following its launch in November 2011.

Message sent from underground bunker:

might hit one of you guys but i'm pretty sure i'm safe.

edit: leme know when it lands.

what do you think it would be worth in dollar value by having it crash in your backyard?

Safe to come out now. 7:00pm EST it disintegrated on re-entry.

maybe sandra bullock can grab on to it and ****ing die already.

Why couldn't they save some fuel and have it safely drop over an ocean? Looks some stupid ****s were planning it. They just e-mailed: look out! Instead of doing something about the risk of giving humanity its first victim of something dropping down from space.

But oh yeah, we always have to get those victims before doing anything. Planning ahead is of course not an option, too expensive.

It fizzled out over the Atlantic, mostly, see link below:


http://news.yahoo.com/satellite-hits...134202616.html

From above link:

BERLIN (AP) — This time it splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean — but what about next time?

1-ton European Satellite Falls to Earth in Fiery Death Dive SPACE.com
European Satellite, Out of Fuel, Will Plunge to Earth Next Month SPACE.com
Doomed European Satellite May Fall to Earth Tonight, But Where? SPACE.com
European satellite burns up after plunging into Earth's atmosphere Reuters
Satellite likely to hit Earth in unpopulated area Associated Press

The European Space Agency says one of its research satellites re-entered the Earth's atmosphere early Monday on an orbit that passed over Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica.

The 1,100-kilogram (2,425-pound) satellite disintegrated in the atmosphere but about 25 percent of it — about 275 kilograms (600 pounds) of "space junk" — slammed into the Atlantic between Antarctica and South America, a few hundred kilometers (miles) from the Falkland Islands, ESA said. It caused no known damage.

But how much space junk is out there? Here's a look:

SPACE JUNK FLYING AROUND THE COSMOS

Some 6,600 satellites have been launched. Some 3,600 remain in space but only about 1,000 are still operational, according to ESA. Not all are still intact, and the U.S. Space Surveillance Network tracks some 23,000 space objects, ESA said. A lot of junk comes down unnoticed, said ESA Space Debris Office deputy head Holger Krag. Statistically, he said, "roughly every week you have a re-entry like GOCE."

AND WHEN IT STARTS TO FALL

About 100 to 150 metric tons (110 to 165 tons) of space junk re-enters Earth's atmosphere each year, according to Heiner Klinkrad, the head of ESA's Space Debris Office. In 56 years of spaceflight, a total of 15,000 metric tons (16,500 tons) of human-made space objects have re-entered the atmosphere.

HOW FAST ARE WE TALKING?

Space junk — mostly satellites and rocket stages or fragments — typically travels at about 28,000 km/h (17,400 mph) shortly before re-entry at about 120 kilometers (75 miles) above the earth, according to ESA. It starts to slow down and heat up in the dense atmosphere. In the last 10 minutes, it hits a travelling speed roughly equal to that of a Formula One racing car —between 200 kph to 300 kph (125 mph to 190 mph).


HOW DANGEROUS IS SPACE JUNK?

There have been no known human injuries or significant property damage caused by space junk, according to ESA. Unlike meteorites, which hurl into the Earth as solid chunks travelling about three times faster, space junk typically falls as fragments and is distributed over a fallout zone up to 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) long. Krag says fragments from a satellite came down in 2011 over the Netherlands, Germany and the Czech Republic but no pieces were ever found.
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I guess ganstaman was disappointed.