Retired NASA Satellite Returns To Earth After 40 Years, Falls Harmlessly From Sky Off Alaska

The ERBS spacecraft was launched from the Space Shuttle Challenger on October 5, 1984, and it was part of NASA’s three-satellite Earth Radiation Budget Experiment mission.

NASA’s retired Earth Radiation Budget Satellite reentered Earth’s atmosphere at 11:04 pm EST on January 8, 2023.

Source : NASA

A retired NASA science satellite,which had been circling Earth for nearly 40 years, plunged through the atmosphere off the coast of Alaska without causing any harm to anyone, NASA reported. The satellite placed in orbit by astronaut Sally Ride in 1984 re-entered Earth’s atmosphere late Sunday night a few hundred miles from Alaska over the Bering Sea, the Defense Department confirmed, according to NASA. The space agency said it has received no reports of injury or damage from the falling debris.

NASA had said late last week while it expected most of the 2,450 kg Earth Radiation Budget Satellite to burn up in the atmosphere only, some pieces could survive the re-entry. They put the odds of falling debris injuring someone at 1-in-9,400.

Worked Well Beyond Its Expected Working Lifeline

The ERBS spacecraft was launched from the Space Shuttle Challenger on October 5, 1984, and it was part of NASA’s three-satellite Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) mission. There were three instruments aboard — one to measure stratospheric constituents, including ozone, and two to measure the radiative energy budget of Earth.  

The energy budget is the “balance between the amount of energy from the Sun that Earth absorbs or radiates”, and is an important indicator of climate health, according to NASA. Understanding the energy budget can help reveal weather patterns. Ozone concentrations in the stratosphere have an important role to play in protecting life on Earth from ultraviolet radiation. 

The satellite was retired in 2005, which was well beyond its expected two-year working lifetime.

NASA said the observations made by the satellite helped researchers measure the effects of human activities on Earth’s radiation balance. The space agency built on the success of the mission with projects such as the current Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) suite of satellite instruments.