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By Andrew Bridges Pasadena Bureau Chief Space.Com
The
first Iridium telecommunications satellite to reenter the
atmosphere broke up over the Arctic Ocean early Wednesday.
The
non-operational satellite reentered at 4:44 a.m. Eastern
Standard Time (09:44 GMT), said Master Sgt. Larry Lincoln,
of the United States Space Command, which tracks about 8,000
artificial objects orbiting the Earth, including spacecraft,
satellites, rocket bodies and debris.
"The
satellite was not designed to survive reentry intact and
was expected to mostly burn up in the atmosphere,"
Lincoln said.
The
satellite was launched September 8, 1998, but failed and
was reported tumbling out of control just two months later.
A second
Iridium satellite is expected to reenter the atmosphere
no later than December 17.
As for
the Chicken Littles of the world, they need not worry.
A study
of the Iridium satellite reentries, show they are within
a NASA and U.S. government standard of acceptable risk,
said Nicholas Johnson, chief scientist and program manager
for NASA’s orbital debris office at the Johnson Space
Center in Houston, Texas. That is, there is a one-in-10,000
chance of anybody being hurt on the ground by a falling
Iridium spacecraft, he told SPACE.com.
Although
the Iridium constellation will lose a few more satellites
that are tumbling in orbit, the roughly 70 remaining operational
birds have found their savior.
Earlier
this month, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District
of New York approved Iridium Satellite LLC’s bargain-basement
$25 million bid to purchase the operating assets of Iridium
LLC and its subsidiaries.
Motorola,
builder and initial operator of the $7 billion constellation
of Iridium satellites will provide subscriber equipment
for users of the worldwide satellite network. The Boeing
Co. will operate and maintain the satellites.
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