This week, a dead NASA spacecraft will collapse to Earth.

NASA Experts predict that a dead NASA spacecraft will crash back to Earth over the next several days.

According to the most recent projections by the U.S. military, NASA’s RHESSI satellite, which monitored the sun from 2002 until its deactivation in 2018, is anticipated to reenter Earth’s atmosphere about 9:30 p.m. EDT on Wednesday (April 19; 0130 GMT on April 20).

The “Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager” or RHESSI satellite is not a big one. It only weights 270 kilogrammes (600 pounds), and most of its mass will be turned into ash and vapour during RHESSI’s death fall, according to NASA experts.

However, “some components are expected to survive reentry,” agency officials stated in a Monday (opens in new tab) (April 17) report. “On Earth, there is a very small chance that anyone will be harmed—about 1 in 2,467.”

This week, a dead NASA spacecraft will collapse to Earth

Global space surveillance networks, for instance, are now tracking more than 30,000 pieces of orbital debris. But there are many other ones that are too little for us to monitor.

Approximately 1 million objects between 0.4 inches and 4 inches (1 to 10 centimetres) broad are now circling our globe, according to an estimate by the European Space Agency(opens in new tab). And there are almost 130 million pieces between 0.04 inches (1 millimetre) and 0.4 inches, which is simply astounding.

Given their incredible velocity, even even little pieces can do significant harm if they collide with a satellite or a crewed spacecraft: Objects travel at a speed of around 17,500 mph (28,160 kph) in low Earth orbit, where the International Space Station and several other vessels are located.

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Additionally, in-space collisions produce a significant amount more space debris, which may eventually cause more collisions. If enough of those occur, we would experience the feared Kessler Syndrome, which would severely limit our capacity to explore and use space.

A Pegasus XL rocket carried the RHESSI satellite to low Earth orbit in February 2002. The spacecraft’s only science instrument, an image spectrometer that captured X-rays and gamma rays, was used to study solar flares and coronal mass ejections.

NASA officials stated in the Monday update that RHESSI “recorded more than 100,000 X-ray events during the mission tenure, allowing scientists to study the energetic particles in solar flares.” Researchers were able to comprehend where the particles were being accelerated thanks to the imager’s assistance in determining the frequency, position, and movement of the particles.

NASA

When RHESSI crashes to Earth, it won’t be the largest piece of space debris to do so. For instance, in November of last year, a Chinese Long March 5B rocket’s 23-ton (21 metric tonnes) core stage crashed back to Earth just five days after launching the third and final module for the country’s Tiangong space station.

It was the fourth Long March 5B mission to date, and each of them had an enormous core stage reentry that was uncontrolled.