N° 5–2024: Media invitation: Satellite reentries explained
6 February 2024
Teams at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, are monitoring the natural reentry of the second European Remote Sensing satellite, ERS-2. Media representatives are invited to attend an online briefing on 13 February 2024 to learn more about the spacecraft’s reentry, learn more about reentry operations and about ESA’s efforts to ensure a sustainable future of spaceflight.
ESA’s ERS-2 satellite is predicted to reenter Earth’s atmosphere on 19 February 2024, with a current uncertainty of +/- 2.8 days. For passivated satellites without remaining fuel on board the natural reentry time is heavily influenced by solar activity. Predictions are constantly being updated by the ESA Space Debris Office and publicly shared via https://reentry.esoc.esa.int/reentry (free registration required).
The ERS-2 mission was launched on 21 April 1995. At the time, it was the most sophisticated Earth observation spacecraft ever developed and launched by Europe. Together with the almost-identical ERS-1, it collected a wealth of valuable data on Earth’s land surfaces, oceans and polar caps and was called upon to monitor natural disasters such as severe flooding or earthquakes in remote parts of the world.
No intervention can be made from the ground, so ERS-2 will return entirely naturally – now a common occurrence as on average one spacecraft reenters Earth’s atmosphere per month.
Previous natural reentries of ESA Earth Observation satellites include GOCE in 2013 and the historical first-ever assisted reentry of Aeolus in 2023. There will be two more ESA spacecrafts returning in 2024, OPS-SAT and Cluster-II (FM2). More upcoming reentries can be monitored on the following page (requires free registration): https://reentry.esoc.esa.int/reentry.
Press briefing – 13 February
This backgrounder will be in English only and will address reentries in general, not only ERS-2. It will discuss all possibilities and scenarios: controlled, semi-controlled and uncontrolled reentries.
Programme
16:30 CET Welcome and short introduction of the speakers
16:35 CET Presentations
17:15 CET Q&A
17:30 CET End of programme
Experts:
- Mirko Albani, Heritage Space Programme and Missions Manager, ESA Earth Observation programme
- Tim Flohrer, Head of the Space Debris Office, ESA Operations programme
- Francesca Letizia, Space Debris Mitigation and Re-Entry Safety Engineer, ESA Technology programme
- Benjamin Bastida Virgili, Space Debris System Engineer, Space Debris Office, ESA Operations
A recording will be available afterwards.
Registration
Please express interest by 12 February at 17:00 CET, by selecting and completing the relevant form at https://blogs.esa.int/forms/esa-media-briefing-form.
After registering, media representatives will receive the link to join the online information session (Teams platform).
More Information
Learn more about ERS-2 reentry here:
https://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2024/02/05/ers-2-reentry-homepage/
https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/ERS_at_a_glance
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/About_the_Space_Debris_Office
https://www.esa.int/Space_Safety/Space_Debris/Space_debris_by_the_numbers
Contact
ESA Newsroom and Media Relations
Email: media@esa.int
Images
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Missions/ERS-2/(result_type)/images
ESA's Photo Library for Professionals:
https://www.esa-photolibrary.com/
Terms and conditions for using ESA images:
For questions or more information related to ESA images, please contact directly spaceinimages@esa.int.
Videos
ESA's Video Library for Professionals:
https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Videos
Terms and conditions for using ESA videos:
For questions or more information related to ESA videos, please contact directly spaceinvideos@esa.int.
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About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Slovenia are Associate Members.
ESA has established formal cooperation with four Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.
Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int