NASA hasannouncedthe Earth Radiation Budget Satellite ( ERBS ) reentered the atmosphere at 11:04 premier EST on Sunday , January 8 . The timing put it over the Bering Sea , so even if any pieces survived re - entry , the chance of equipment casualty to people or property was minimum . However , this was pure luck . The uncontrolled nature of the re - entree meant it could have make out down over densely populate Korea if the timing had been only somewhat dissimilar .
In recent years , multipleLong March 5Brockets have made uncontrolled re - entries , putting a wide reach of equatorial and temperate region at risk . Although most of the pieces have fallen into the ocean , some have comedisturbingly closeto villages . Many short - range Eruca sativa have diminish over China , sometimesquite dramatically . An international incident is probably only a affair of sentence .
Although Space X theoretically make controlled re - entries over the ocean , several failures have ascertain pieces land inAustraliaand theUnited States . Today , NASA ’s satellites are fit to make hold in reentries when their time hail , if they are large enough to be serious , but this has not always been the case .
The ERBS was launch in 1984 with an intended two - year life-time . Scientifically , it was an tremendous success , find the Earth ’s reflected radiation and its stratospheric accelerator pedal such as ozone for 21 years before mathematical operation failed . It also dramatically flesh out our understanding of environmental threat such as ozone depletion and world heat . However , no provision was made for good reentry , so when atmospherical drag caused its orbit to decay , the major planet was play a configuration of Russian Roulette with falling alloy .
Nevertheless , there is a divergence of scale between the ERBS and the fall Long March rockets . The ERBS weighed 2.4 MT , a size which means most of its mass was bear to cauterize up in the atmospheric state , with only small piece likely to reach the footing , even if it had come down over land . foresightful March 5Bs librate 21.6 tonne , most of which reaches sea level .
