2024-03-09 20:51:34
The discarded battery pack from the ISS flew over Germany twice as it entered the Earth’s atmosphere. It crashed on Friday evening.
A large package of space junk has been orbiting our Earth for three years. The pallet with old nickel-hydrogen batteries was separated from the International Space Station ISS on March 21, 2021 and now entered the Earth’s atmosphere. The crash was reported on Friday evening.
The remains of the discarded battery pack from the ISS space station crashed in the American Mediterranean, which also includes the Gulf of Mexico. This was announced by the spokeswoman for the Bundeswehr Space Situation Center, Simone Meyer. The remains fell roughly into the sea in a corridor between Guatemala and Florida. The battery pack was “probably largely burnt up”. The European Space Surveillance Agency also said that, based on available information, it is assumed that the battery reached Earth on Friday evening and was probably partially burnt up.
Seen with the naked eye
The entry into the earth’s atmosphere could also be seen in Germany. Rainer Kresken, head of the Starkenburg Observatory in Heppenheim and space engineer at the European Space Agency Esa, told t-online: “Currently the calculations say that the object enters the atmosphere over Brazil at around 5:52 p.m. our time. But there is also one “There’s a small chance that it will burn up over Germany. That could be a really good show.” He urged fans to keep their eyes skyward because in certain areas the entry could be seen with the naked eye, “as a streak of light or flaming object moving from one horizon to the other.”
Nothing came of the show, but later there was a video from Gelsenkirchen from 7:19 p.m. on Platform X, in which a trail of light can be seen if you look closely:
Previously, the ISS debris was spotted in Amsterdam at 7:17 p.m.
Where and when was the object seen?
After the first overflight over Germany, there was an opportunity for further sightings of the debris during a second orbit over the earth over Baden-Württemberg. From about 8:54 p.m This would have been possible in the southwesternmost tip of Germany (Emmendingen, Freiburg, Tuttlingen, Konstanz and Oberallgäu).
A map from the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Relief (BBK) showed the likely path over Germany. It was important to note that the map shows times in Zulu time, which is one hour earlier than on our German clocks. The debris therefore flew in a zigzag pattern and in three flybys over various federal states such as Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg.
Why can’t re-entry be predicted accurately?
It was an uncontrolled re-entry, so precise predictions are very difficult.
“The object is gradually slowed down by the atmosphere and thus loses its orbit,” said the head of the ESA space security program, Holger Krag, to the online portal of the “Tagesschau”. “The great uncertainty comes from the fact that we cannot predict exactly how dense the atmosphere will be. It depends on many factors and is largely left to chance. In this respect, even a few hours in advance, you cannot precisely determine the location “You may be able to exclude some continents, but you definitely can’t narrow the forecast down to one country or one city.”
On Thursday afternoon, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) distributed official danger information via several warning apps, according to which the probability of rubble falling on Germany was very low.