There could be lightning and thunder: Tons of space debris are expected to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere on Friday. Before that he also flies over Hesse. According to experts, parts could fall to the earth’s surface.
According to the Federal Office for Civil Protection, it is an approximately 12 cubic meter platform with battery packs. It was separated from the International Space Station ISS three years ago and has been orbiting the Earth ever since. According to the authorities, the entire object has a mass of 2.6 tons.
Parts could end up on earth
Most of this mass will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, but probably not all of it. “Initial analyzes by the German Space Situational Center have shown that parts of the battery packs can survive re-entry and reach the earth’s surface,” said the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Cologne.
“Lights or the perception of a sonic boom” are possible when the object enters the Earth’s atmosphere, as in one Warning message of the Federal Office for Civil Protection. A corresponding message was also received “Katwarn” published.
35 kilometer wide overflight corridors
Re-entry is expected between Friday lunchtime and Saturday lunchtime. The civil protection office published one Map, on which several corridors approximately 35 kilometers wide are drawn, along which the battery packs are supposed to fly over Germany before re-entry. Two of these railways lie over large parts of Hesse.
According to the map, the districts of Rheingau-Taunus, Limburg-Weilburg, Lahn-Dill, Hochtaunus, Marburg-Biedenkopf, Gießen, Wetterau, Main-Kinzig, Vogelsberg, Schwalm-Eder, Hersfeld-Rotenburg, Fulda, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Kassel ( with city) and Werra-Meißner in the area of these overflight corridors.
You can’t rule anything out
However, there is currently no acute danger. It is “more than unlikely” that Europe will be hit by debris, said a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics. “But you can’t say that it’s completely out of the question,” said the spokeswoman. That’s always the case in space travel.
The ministry operates the space situation center in Uedem, North Rhine-Westphalia, together with the Federal Ministry of Defense. The Ministry of Economic Affairs said the property would be closely monitored there. If, contrary to expectations, there are indications that Germany is affected, the existing crisis mechanisms and information channels would be used to react accordingly, it said.
According to Esa, exact forecasts will only be made hours before re-entry
When asked, the European Space Agency Esa said the re-entry would take place between -51.6 degrees south and 51.6 degrees north. More precise forecasts are only possible a few hours before the event.
“We track the object and provide our ESA member states with corresponding predictions of the time and location of re-entry, which then continuously combine these with our own analyses.”
Space debris problem
Space debris is a growing problem in space travel. Disused satellites and millions of pieces of scrap orbit in low Earth orbit. Due to the increasing privatization of space travel, the number of scrap parts in space is also increasing.
Space agencies such as Esa and NASA are working on strategies to get the problem under control. One solution is to allow disused spacecraft to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. A satellite recently crashed over the North Pacific.
Broadcast: hr-iNFO, March 7, 2024, 6 p.m
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