Ritika
Delhi: A 38-year-old retired NASA satellite is about to fall from the sky. NASA said on Friday that the chance of debris falling on anyone is very small. According to NASA, most of the 5,400-pound (2,450 kg) satellite will burn up upon re-entry. But some fragments are expected to survive. The space agency put the chance of injury from falling debris at about 1 in 9,400. According to the Defense Department, the science satellite is expected to come down on Sunday night, it will take 17 hours.
NASA’s TDRS-9 satellite has reached its end of mission, surpassing its planned 15-year mission life. The TDRS fleet provides relay comm services for NASA missions, including @Space_Stationand will continue supporting key operations over the next decade. pic.twitter.com/V9e1D9Bmgp
— NASA Space Communications and Navigation (@NASASCaN) January 5, 2023
Launched on the space shuttle Challenger in 1984
The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite, known as ERBS, was launched on the space shuttle Challenger in 1984. Although its expected working lifetime was two years, the satellite continued to make ozone and other atmospheric measurements until its retirement in 2005. The satellite studied how Earth absorbs and radiates energy from the Sun.
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Shuttle was done in orbit with the help of Robot
The satellite received a special dispatch from Challenger. Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space, released a satellite into orbit using the Shuttle’s robot. The same mission also featured the first spacewalk by an American woman, Katherine Sullivan. This was the first time that two female astronauts had flown in space together. This was the second and final space flight for Ride, who died in 2012.
