Defunct NASA Satellite Speeding Towards Earth; Know Whether it Poses any Danger or Not

A 38-year-old defunct satellite of NASA is hurtling towards the earth and there are chances that some of its components may crash at some place.

This American satellite named Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) was decommissioned in 2018. Since then it is orbiting the Earth. The spacecraft used to observe solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the Sun from the low-Earth orbit.

This 300-kg defunct satellite will re-enter earth’s atmosphere on Wednesday. Its orbit and trajectory is being monitored by the US Defence Department.

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,” Nasa said in a statement.

According to the latest projections, the spacecraft is expected to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere at 7:00 am on Wednesday.