• ESA’s final Cluster spacecraft Tango set for targeted reentry over the South Pacific on September 1

    ByReet Kaur

    The European Space Agency (ESA) predicts that Tango, the fourth and final Cluster spacecraft, will reenter Earth’s atmosphere over a remote part of the South Pacific Ocean at 21:30:31 UTC on September 1, 2026, with an uncertainty of ±10 seconds. ESA said at 11:10 UTC that the ROSIE team was flying out again from Tonga to observe the breakup with an aircraft carrying 30 instruments, one day after successfully recording the reentry of Tango’s sister spacecraft Samba.

  • Chinese ZQ-3 R/B rocket stage expected to re-enter atmosphere over Europe today

    ByTeo Blašković

    An uncontrolled atmospheric re-entry of the Chinese ZQ-3 R/B second stage, weighing about 11 tonnes, is expected over Europe on January 30, 2026. EU Space Surveillance and Tracking (EU SST) reports a predicted re-entry centered near 11:20 UTC ± 48 minutes. National sensors coordinated through the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and EU SST Operations Centres are tracking the object and assessing potential airspace impacts south of Denmark and in the Baltic region.

  • Largest object ever jettisoned from ISS to make uncontrolled re-entry this week

    ByTW

    The International Space Station’s (ISS) largest-ever discarded object, a hefty equipment pallet weighing 2.9 tons, is anticipated to make an uncontrolled descent back to Earth between March 8 and 9, 2024. Launched into space for a critical ISS power system upgrade, this pallet, loaded with nine old station batteries, will not fully disintegrate upon reentry, with predictions indicating about half a ton of debris could survive the descent and impact the planet’s surface.

  • CZ-3B rocket body re-entry recorded over Paraguay

    ByTeo Blašković

    The body of Chinese Long March 3B rocket, also known as CZ-3B, launched December 10, 2017, re-entered Earth's atmosphere around 05:52 UTC on March 10 over Paraguay, creating a spectacular show. The American Meteor Society (AMS) received just one witness report…

  • China’s Heavenly Palace to fall to Earth late 2017

    ByTW

    After about six years in space, China's first prototype space station — Tiangong-1 — is expected to fall into the Earth's atmosphere in the latter half of 2017, Chinese officials said at a press conference last week. Tiangong-1 (Chinese for "Heavenly…

  • Fiery re-entry of China’s Chang Zheng 7 rocket over the Western US

    ByTW

    A slow moving bright streak of light burst across the night sky over California, Utah and Nevada around 21:36 PTD on Wednesday, July 27 (04:36 UTC on July 28). Images and videos of the event immediately sent social media into a frenzy. The event lasted for over 30…

  • A ‘big flame in the sky’ over South Island, New Zealand

    ByTW

    A 'big flame in the sky' was observed over New Zealand's South Island at 06:30 UTC (18:30 local time) on July 19, 2016. The object was initially considered a 'fist-sized" meteor, but, after further analyses, some experts now believe it was a…