首页  | 新闻播报

European satellite plunges to Earth

中国日报网 2013-11-12 10:15

分享到微信

Get Flash Player

Download

A spent science satellite that had measured Earth's gravity field re-entered the atmosphere on Sunday night and mostly disintegrated as planned, the European Space Agency said on Monday.

As expected, an estimated 25 percent of the 1-ton GOCE satellite reached Earth's surface, said the ESA in a statement, but "no damage to property has been reported."

There was no immediate word on where and when any debris may have landed.

GOCE "is only a small fraction of the 100-150 tons of man-made space objects that re-enter Earth's atmosphere annually", said Heiner Klinkrad, head of ESA's space debris office.

"In the 56 years of spaceflight, some 15,000 tons of man-made space objects have re-entered the atmosphere without causing a single human injury to date."

Scientists had predicted that several dozen fragments of GOCE, totaling some 200 kilograms -about the weight of a car engine - would survive contact with the atmosphere.

The GOCE, or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, was launched in 2009 to map the Earth's gravitational field.

ESA said its information is being used to understand ocean circulation, sea level, ice dynamics and the Earth's interior.

The sleek, finned craft's mission came to a natural end when it ran out of fuel on Oct 21, leaving it without power to maintain its altitude in low orbit, where there are still lingering molecules of air.

The 350 million euro ($469 million) mission lasted twice as long as its initially scheduled 20 months.

ESA said the satellite re-entered the atmosphere around midnight on Sunday on a descending orbit that crossed Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica.

(中国日报网英语点津 Helen 编辑)

 

About the broadcaster:

Anne Ruisi is an editor at China Daily online with more than 30 years of experience as a newspaper editor and reporter. She has worked at newspapers in the U.S., including The Birmingham News in Alabama and City Newspaper of Rochester, N.Y.

中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883561联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。
人气排行
中国日报网 英语点津微信
中国日报网 双语小程序