Shillong, April 18: After more than 21 years of service, a retired American satellite is on its way to enter Earth’s atmosphere and may crash on the surface.
After being decommissioned in 2018, the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) has been orbiting the Earth in degrading orbit. From its position in low-Earth orbit, the spacecraft was charged with monitoring solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the Sun.
The US Defence Department is keeping an eye on the 300-kilogram satellite’s orbit and course as it prepares to re-enter the atmosphere on Wednesday.
Nasa said in a statement said, “We expect most of the spacecraft to burn up as it travels through the atmosphere, but some components are expected to survive reentry. The risk of harm coming to anyone on Earth is low – approximately 1 in 2,467”
The Orbital Sciences Corporation Pegasus XL rocket carried the RHESSI spacecraft into Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where it was put to use in 2002. Before being decommissioned in 2018, the spacecraft was in operation.
The mission offered crucial information about solar flares and their accompanying coronal mass ejections, which in minutes discharge the energy equivalent of billions of megatons of TNT into the solar atmosphere and can have an impact on Earth.
NASA said, “During its mission tenure, RHESSI recorded more than 100,000 X-ray events, allowing scientists to study the energetic particles in solar flares. The imager helped researchers determine the particles’ frequency, location, and movement, which helped them understand where the particles were being accelerated”.
It recorded a wide variety of solar flares, ranging in size from microscopic nanoflares to enormous superflares that are thousands of times larger and more explosive. As a result of communication issues, the spacecraft was decommissioned.
The spacecraft is anticipated to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at 7:00 am on Wednesday, according to the most recent predictions.