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Space
Space
Science
Brett Tingley

Bus-sized European satellite crashes to Earth over Pacific Ocean

An illustration of a rectangular spacecraft with H-shaped solar sails in orbit above Earth.

A dead European satellite fell back to Earth today, bringing an end to its nearly 30-year life in space.

The European Space Agency's (ESA) European Remote Sensing 2 (ERS-2) satellite reentered Earth's atmosphere at 12:15 EST (1715 GMT) over the Pacific Ocean. The fall ended a nearly 13-year deorbiting campaign that began with 66 engine burns in July 2011, depleting the spacecraft of remaining fuel.

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