The European Space Agency (ESA) GOCE satellite has reentered the Earth's atmosphere at about 1:00 CET or 7:00 p.m EST on Monday. The satellite designed to map the details of the Earth's gravity field was expected to crash into Earth after it runs out of fuel.
The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) was the first of the space agency's Living Planet Programme satellites equipped with highly sensitive gravity gradiometer that can measure three levels of gravity fields. It was able to analyze the volcanic regions of the planet as well as the ocean behavior allowing scientists to track the direction and speed of the ocean currents. However, on November 11, the satellite went out of orbit after it ran out of fuel and reentered the Earth's atmosphere.
After almost splitting into three, the GOCE satellite has completed its mission in Oct. 10. It stated descending into Earth until it reached a height of 122 km Sunday. It was still functional and using the rest of its battery until it finally reentered Earth's atmosphere. Its orbit passed Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica.
Only 25 percent of the GOCE satellite was able to make it into the atmosphere. The rest of the 1,100 –kg satellite collapsed before it hits the surface, according to the Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee and ESA's Space Debris Office.
"The one-tonne GOCE satellite is only a small fraction of the 100–150 tonnes of man-made space objects that reenter Earth's atmosphere annually," said Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA's Space Debris Office.
"In the 56 years of spaceflight, some 15 000 tonnes of man-made space objects have reentered the atmosphere without causing a single human injury to date."
There is no announcement yet if there will be any recovery mission for the remains of the GOCE satellite.
