The a doomed satellite looks like a Star Wars Tie Fighter spacecraft (Image: SWNS)
The UK Space Agency has warned that a doomed satellite, which looks like a Star Wars Tie Fighter spacecraft, is set to crash into Earth next week.
On Friday (16 Feb), the agency announced they are on high alert and have been working with satellite tracking company HEO to monitor the rogue satellite.
Scientists admit they don’t know where the European Remote Sensing 2 satellite (ERS-2) will land.
The European Space Agency (ESA) predicted on Friday that their out-of-control satellite will re-enter the atmosphere on Wednesday (21 Feb) at 12:10pm.
However, this prediction could be off by as much as 27 hours on either side.
Images of ERS-2, captured from space by HEO between 14 January and 3 February (Image: SWNS)
Images of ERS-2, captured from space by HEO between 14 January and 3 February, show the satellite rotating on its journey back to Earth.
These images have been shared with ESA to assist in tracking ERS-2’s re-entry.
In an update, the UK Space Agency said it operates “the UK’s re-entry warning service and has tasked our UK sensors to observe the re-entry of ERS-2.”
The government’s space debris re-entry service scans for incoming threats (Image: SWNS)
The government’s space debris re-entry service scans for incoming threats and can issue a warning if a potential emergency arises.
The UK Space Agency, regarding the re-entry service, states: “Our orbital analysts use UK-developed state-of-the art modelling to monitor re-entering objects and produce re-entry warnings if it is a UK-licensed object re-entering, or if the UK or our overseas territories/crown dependencies might be affected.”
The agency shares these warnings with civil protection authorities in the UK and abroad.
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They also highlight: “Our re-entry service, alongside our in-orbit collision and fragmentation service (known as our Space Surveillance and Tracking service), runs 365 days a year.”
Angus Stewart, who leads the Space Surveillance and Tracking at the UK Space Agency, said: “There are thousands of operational and defunct satellites in orbit around the Earth, and the ability to operate safely in space and bring the benefits back to Earth is growing increasingly challenging.”
He further mentioned that apart from capturing the images in partnership with HEO, the UK Space Agency runs the UK’s re-entry warning service and has commanded our UK sensors to observe the re-entry of ERS-2.
There are thousands of operational and defunct satellites in orbit around the Earth (Image: SWNS)
“We share data with ESA and other international partners through the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) and other forums to support satellite re-entries.”
Finally, HEO said: “The objective is to understand how Non-earth Imagery can improve re-entry predictions by reducing uncertainties on the object re-entering, as well as better understand the nature of re-entering objects.”
the Met Office helped make the satellite that didn’t work out (Image: SWNS)
“This is particularly important for uncontrolled or poorly characterised objects, such as large space debris objects that may no longer be intact.”
The UK Space Agency has said that UK scientists and engineers from places like Airbus, the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxford University, the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, and the Met Office helped make the satellite that didn’t work out.
ESA says the ERS-2 coming back to Earth is ‘natural’ (Image: SWNS)
ESA says the ERS-2 coming back to Earth is ‘natural’ because nobody can control the satellite anymore.
The only thing making ERS-2 fall out of the sky is air drag, which changes because of the sun’s activity that we can’t predict.
