Europe’s pioneering ERS-2 satellite catches fire over the Pacific Ocean

A European satellite fell to Earth, pioneering many of the technologies used to monitor the Earth and its climate.

The 2-ton ERS-2 spacecraft burst into flames in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

So far, there have been no sightings of the mission ending or of any debris reaching the surface.

ERS-2 was one of two missions launched by the European Space Agency in the 1990s to study the atmosphere, land, and ocean in new ways.

They monitored floods, measured surface temperatures on continents and oceans, tracked the movement of ice fields, and sensed ground warping during earthquakes.

And ERS-2 specifically introduced new capabilities to assess the Earth’s protective ozone layer.

The satellite’s return was expected, albeit uncontrolled. There was no functioning propulsion system to direct the violent lunge.

Radar tracked its fall. The end occurred at 17:17 GMT (18:17 CET) plus or minus one minute over the North Pacific Ocean between Alaska and Hawaii, about 2,000 kilometers west of California, Esa said.

Esa’s Earth Remote Sensing (ERS) spacecraft has been described as the “grandfather of Earth observation in Europe”.

“That’s right,” said Dr. Ralph Cody. “In terms of technology, you can draw a direct line from ERS to the European Copernicus/Sentinel satellites that monitor the Earth today. ERS is where it all started,” Airbus’ Earth Observation Business Development Manager told BBC News told.

Dr. Ruth Mottram is a glaciologist at the Danish Meteorological Institute. She recalled the revolution that ERS brought to her own discipline.

“When I was a college student in the ’90s, we were told that the ice sheets were so cold and stable that they wouldn’t change much. “This is thought to be a result of climate change. And ERS has actually shown that this is not true and that major changes are already occurring.”

When ERS-2 ceased operations in 2011, it was ordered to lower its orbit from 780 km above Earth to an altitude of 570 km. Controllers then “passivated” the satellite, the tanks were emptied, and the battery system was completely discharged.

It was predicted Wednesday that the upper atmosphere would destroy the spacecraft within about 15 years.

In the 1990s, space debris mitigation guidelines were further relaxed. It was deemed permissible to bring back surplus spacecraft within 25 years of their end of service.

ESA’s new Zero Debris Charter recommends that the disposal grace period not exceed five years. And that future satellite will be launched with the necessary fuel and the ability to deorbit propulsively in a short period of time.

The rationale is clear. With so many satellites now being launched into orbit, the potential for collisions is increasing. ERS-1 suddenly failed before technicians could lower its altitude. It is still over 700km above Earth. At that height, it could take 100 years to fall naturally.

The American company SpaceX, which operates most of the functional satellites currently in orbit (more than 5,400), recently announced that 100 of its satellites have been removed due to the discovery of defects that “may increase the likelihood of failure in the future.” announced that it would crash. They want to remove the spacecraft before problems arise and make their work even more difficult.

They write: “The accumulation of giant derelict objects in low Earth orbit continues unabated, with 28% of current long-lived giant derelict objects remaining in orbit since the turn of the century.”

“These uncontrollable clusters of mass pose the greatest debris generation potential for the thousands of newly deployed satellites powering the world’s space economy.”