
The principle of gravity dictates that what goes up must eventually come down.
Scheduled for re-entry this week, a retired satellite, ERS-2, is poised to return to Earth after fulfilling its mission for over a decade.
ERS-2, an early Earth observation satellite launched by the European Space Agency (ESA), will undergo a "natural" re-entry process after spending 16 years in orbit. ESA estimates the re-entry to occur around 10am ET on Wednesday, based on current projections as of Sunday afternoon.
Originally launched in 1995 with a planned operational span of three years, ERS-2 exceeded expectations by remaining functional until 2011, contributing valuable data to more than 5,000 projects. Its observations included monitoring polar ice caps, sea levels, and atmospheric compositions.
Following its final data transmission, ESA executed 66 de-orbiting manoeuvres to ensure the satellite's controlled descent, preventing it from lingering in orbit for over a century.
While most of the satellite's 2.5-ton mass is expected to burn up upon re-entry into Earth's atmosphere, some debris may survive and fall into a body of water. However, ESA currently lacks precise predictions regarding the exact landing location.