Old NASA satellite crashes into ocean near Alaska

After almost 40 years circling Earth, a retired NASA science satellite plunged harmlessly through the atmosphere off the coast of Alaska, NASA reported Monday.

The Defense Department confirmed that the satellite — placed in orbit in 1984 by astronaut Sally Ride — reentered late Sunday night over the Bering Sea, a few hundred miles from Alaska. NASA said it’s received no reports of injury or damage from falling debris.

Late last week, NASA said it expected most of the 5,400-pound Earth Radiation Budget Satellite to burn up in the atmosphere, but that some pieces might survive. The space agency put the odds of falling debris injuring someone at 1-in-9,400.

Space shuttle Challenger carried the satellite into orbit and the first American woman in space set it free. The satellite measured ozone in the atmosphere and studied how Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the sun, before being retired in 2005, well beyond its expected working lifetime.


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A 38-year-old retired NASA satellite is about to fall from the sky.

NASA said Friday the chance of wreckage falling on anybody is “very low.” Most of the 5,400-pound (2,450-kilogram) satellite will burn up upon reentry, according to NASA. But some pieces are expected to survive.

The space agency put the odds of injury from falling debris at about 1-in-9,400.

The science satellite is expected to come down Sunday night, give or take 17 hours, according to the Defense Department.

The California-based Aerospace Corp., however is targeting Monday morning, give or take 13 hours, along a track passing over Africa, Asia the Middle East and the westernmost areas of North and South America.

.The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, known as ERBS, was launched in 1984 aboard space shuttle Challenger. Although its expected working lifetime was two years, the satellite kept making ozone and other atmospheric measurements until its retirement in 2005. The satellite studied how Earth absorbed and radiated energy from the sun.

The satellite got a special sendoff from Challenger. America’s first woman in space, Sally Ride, released the satellite into orbit using the shuttle’s robot arm. That same mission also featured the first spacewalk by a U.S. woman: Kathryn Sullivan. It was the first time two female astronauts flew in space together.

It was the second and final spaceflight for Ride, who died in 2012.




In this photo made available by NASA, the space shuttle Challenger launches the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite in 1984. It came down Sunday night off the coast of Alaska. (NASA via AP)