Space travel
Remains of ISS battery crashed in the Mediterranean
The battery pack was “probably largely burnt up”. photo
© Christoph Reichwein/dpa
The discarded battery pack from the ISS space station largely burned up in the Earth’s atmosphere and a remainder crashed in the American Mediterranean. Germany flew over it.
Remains of the space station’s discarded battery pack ISS crashed in the American Mediterranean in the evening. At 8:29 p.m. the package re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, said spokeswoman for the Bundeswehr’s space situation center, Simone Meyer. The battery pack was “probably largely burnt up”. Remains fell roughly into the sea in a corridor between Guatemala and Florida.
It had previously also flown over Germany. At 7:21 p.m., the package came from the west and flew over the middle of Germany at an altitude of 139 kilometers, according to the space situation center, which then gave the all-clear. There had previously been concerns that debris could fall onto the Federal Republic, although that was considered very unlikely. There was initially no news of any damage elsewhere.
The object was a pallet containing nine disused batteries from the International Space Station (ISS). The platform with battery packs was about the size of a car and weighed around 2.6 tons. It was detached from the ISS in March 2021 with the aim of later burning up in the atmosphere.
Several organizations, including the Federal Ministry of Economics responsible for space travel and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), had already informed about the battery pack on Thursday.