Europe's oldest satellite ERS-2 burned down over the ocean: what happened

The first satellite launched by the European Space Agency has fallen to Earth. The ERS-2 device burned up in the atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean, at coordinates 37°24'00.0 "N 151°54'00.0 "W.

This was reported by the European Space Agency's Control Center. Interestingly, European ESA experts only observed the fall and did not know where exactly it would occur until recently.

ERS-2 was Europe's first surveillance platform when it was launched in 1995. The more than two-ton satellite stopped functioning in 2011 and has been out of control since then. However, the ESA assumed that ERS-2 would stay in orbit for about 15 years.

The Agency claims that most of the two-ton satellite burned up during the fall. Minor fragments reached the water, but "they are not radioactive or toxic."

What was the mission of the ERS satellites?

In the 1990s, the Agency launched two almost identical satellites into space. The Earth Remote Sensing Satellites (ERS) monitored floods, measured continental and ocean surface temperatures, tracked glacier movement, and recorded the earth's bending during earthquakes.

ERS-2 also had sensors to monitor the Earth's protective ozone layer.

It was the ERS pair that proved and demonstrated in the images that the climate is changing on the planet, and that it is changing faster than expected.

ERS-1 has also been out of service for some time. But unlike ERS-2, the engineers were unable to bring it down, and the connection with the satellite was interrupted. It can stay at an altitude of more than 700 km above the Earth for about 100 years.

Earlier, OBOZ.UA reported that Russia could launch nuclear weapons into space this year.

In Germany, the possible consequences of a Russian bomb in Earth's orbit were assessed as a catastrophe for all the inhabitants of the Earth.

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