NASA satellite plummets to Earth after 38 years in space

NASA's retired Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) reentered Earth's atmosphere at 11:04 p.m. EST on Jan. 8, 2023.

A 5,400-pound NASA satellite that spent almost the last four decades orbiting Earth went down in a blaze of glory over the weekend. Dubbed the Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS), the research satellite was launched from the Space Shuttle Challenger on Oct. 5, 1984 to gather data on solar energy Earth absorbs and radiates back to space to help researchers learn more about climate health and weather patterns. The spacecraft operated beyond its expected working lifetime of two years until its retirement in 2005.

For its first 21 years in orbit, the spacecraft used three instruments to measure stratospheric concentrations of ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosols. Measurements made during the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II) on ERBS confirmed the decline of the ozone layer and helped shape the 1987 Montreal Protocol Agreement, an international treaty that limited the use of ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons around the globe, per a NASA news release.

The defunct spacecraft reentered Earth's atmosphere over the Bering Sea near Alaska's coast at 11:04 p.m. on Sunday, the Department of Defense confirmed. In a statement, NASA said it "expected most of the satellite to burn up as it traveled through the atmosphere, but for some components to survive the reentry."

VIDEO: The satellite, which was put into orbit in 1984, plummeted back to earth last night over the Bering Sea.This video of the apparent reentry was captured by viewer Louis Post from Nightmute, a community on the Bering Sea coast. 😲DETAILS: https://t.co/M72IBbbhcv pic.twitter.com/5xUYqUWW26

A video captured by a resident of Nightmute, a community on the Bering Sea coast, showed the spacecraft meeting its fiery end as it plummeted through the atmosphere. The space agency had estimated the odds that falling debris injuring someone or causing any damage at 1 in 9,400. However, NASA said there have been no reports of injury or damage from the falling debris.

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