Fireball camera spots rocket reentry burn

A camera in the Allsky7 fireball network spots the moment an Atlas-V rocket performed a reentry burn, to eventually reenter Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

After launching NASA’s Landsat-9 Earth observation satellite into orbit at around 20:00 last night, the 12.6-metre Centaur upper stage performed a ‘deorbit burn’, bringing the launcher safely back down to Earth and preventing it from becoming a new piece of space debris.

“Rockets stages are among the largest objects we launch from Earth’s surface and have the potential to break into large fragments as they return through Earth’s atmosphere – some with the potential to reach the ground,” explains Stijn Lemmens, Senior Space Debris Mitigation Analyst at ESA.

“Performing a reentry over uninhabited stretches of the Pacific is the right thing to do here”.

While the Allsky7 fireball network was setup to spot natural objects striking Earth’s atmosphere – in particular meteors and potentially meteorite-dropping fireballs – it sometimes captures human-made vessels at the end of their lives.

Whether its ancient space rocks striking Earth or returning technologies departing orbital highways, ESA is watching – along with teams around the world, other Agencies and amateur astronomers like those who setup the AllSky7 camera network.

Find out more about the Space Safety programme and how it is working to protect us, and our infrastructure, from the hazards of space. A compilation of AllSky7 observations from this event can be seen here, and check out this impressive observation of the Centaur reentry from satellite spotter M. Langbroek.