The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer -- a European Space Agency
satellite known shorthand as GOCE -- had fallen to an altitude of about
122 kilometers (75 miles) by Sunday night, the ESA reported. It's now
expected to plunge into the atmosphere and break up sometime before 8
p.m. ET, the ESA said.
"The most probable
re-entry area lies on a descending orbit pass that mainly runs across
the Pacific and the Indian Ocean," the agency reported. Controllers have
all but ruled out any chance that the spacecraft would come down over
Europe, it said.
GOCE's orbit can be tracked via an ESA website.
The 5-meter (16-foot)
satellite was launched in 2009 to map variations in the Earth's gravity
in 3-D, provide ocean circulation patterns and make other measurements.
Powered by solar panels and not-your-average lithium-ion battery, it
lasted more than three times its expected lifespan before running out of
juice on October 21.
In March 2011, the ESA
added another role -- as the "first seismometer in orbit" -- when GOCE
detected sound waves from the massive earthquake that struck Japan.
Re-entry is now likely over the Pacific or Indian oceans, ESA reports
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