In the coming days, a NASA space satellite weighing 2450 kg, launched in 1984, will fall to Earth.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) expects that these

weekend or early next week, the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) will crash to Earth. The exact location of the crash has not yet been determined.

What is known

The satellite was launched into low Earth orbitshuttle Challenger in 1984. The task of ERBS was to study the radiation balance of our planet. Initially, NASA wanted to decommission the satellite two years after launch, but the spacecraft ended up operating until 2005. For more than 17 years, it has been gradually decreasing and will fall to Earth very soon.

According to the space agency, the ERBS debriscause harm on Earth with a probability of 1 in 9400. Although the department still does not know exactly where the pieces of the apparatus will fall. They are equally likely to crash into Asia, Africa, the Middle East, or the western regions of South/North America.

The mass of the satellite is 2450 kg, but largepart of the spacecraft will burn up. According to NASA calculations, ERBS will enter the dense layers of the atmosphere on January 9 at 01:40 (EET) ± 17 hours, i.e. it is possible that this will happen tomorrow.