Re-Entry: Kosmos 1346
Kosmos 1346 – a Tselina-D Electronic Intelligence Satellite – re-entered the atmosphere on December 17, 2017 after over 35 years in orbit.
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Military Space
Re-Entry: Minotaur IV Rocket Body
The fourth stage of a modified Minotaur IV rocket re-entered the atmosphere on September 1st, 2017 after only six days
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Re-Entry: Long March 3A Rocket Body from first Beidou MEO Launch
A Long March 3A rocket stage re-entered the atmosphere on July 18, 2017 after over one decade in orbit, making a very slow decay from a Medium Earth Transfer Orbit.
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Re-Entry: Tsiklon-3 Rocket Body
A spent rocket body from a 2001 Tsiklon-3 launch re-entered the atmosphere on April 27, 2017 after sixteen years in orbit.
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Re-Entry: SpinSat
The spherical SpinSat satellite of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory re-entered the atmosphere on March 13, 2017 two and a half years after being released from the International Space Station, marking the first time a non-CubeSat was deployed by the Station’s robots (utilizing the SSIKLOPS deployment mechanism).
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Re-Entry: Molniya 3-51 Military Communications Satellite
The Molniya 3-51 (Molniya-3K-1) Military Communications Satellite re-entered the atmosphere on December 19, 2016 after over 15 years in orbit.
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Re-Entry: AVUM Rocket Body
The spent upper stage from the inaugural launch of Europe’s Vega rocket in 2012 succumbed to atmospheric drag on November 2, 2016 after four and a half years in orbit.
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Re-Entry: IGS 3A
The Japanese IGS 3A Optical Reconnaissance Satellite re-entered the atmosphere on October 29, 2016 after a decade in orbit collecting intelligence in the form of images at a one-meter ground resolution.
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Re-Entry: China’s AX-1 SmallSat
The Chinese AX-1 satellite re-entered the atmosphere on September 29, concluding a three-month mission to test out innovative navigation technology.
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Re-Entry: Aolong-1 Space Debris Removal Demonstrator
China’s Aolong-1 space debris mitigation demonstrator re-entered the atmosphere on August 27, 2016 after two months in orbit, completing a short-duration demo mission.
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Re-Entry: China’s Tiange 1 & 2 SmallSats
The Chinese Tiange 1 and 2 satellites re-entered the atmosphere on August 27 and 24, respectively, concluding a short-duration mission of two months dedicated to the demonstration of space-to-space inter-satellite and space-to-Earth communications.
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Fireball over Western U.S: Chinese Rocket Debris
Authorities in the Western United State received dozens of calls Wednesday night and Social Media was a buzz after a long-lasting fireball streaked through the night skies from California to Utah.
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Russian Rocket Motor explodes in Orbit
A Russian rocket motor suffered an explosive break-up on Wednesday, shedding at least 20 pieces of debris in a highly elliptical orbit around Earth.
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Re-Entry: Molniya 1-93 Military Communications Satellite
The final Molniya 1 Military Communications Satellite re-entered the atmosphere on April 16, 2016 after over 12 years in orbit.
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DMSP F19 Military Weather Satellite declared Lost after Communications Failure
The DMSP-19 military weather satellite has been declared a complete loss after it was unresponsive to commands sent from the ground for over a month, caused by a failure within both communication chains of the spacecraft.
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Re-Entry of Chinese Spy Satellite Observed from Bolivia
The Re-Entry of a the Chinese ZiYuan-2 A reconnaissance satellite was observed over Bolivia on March 11 after fifteen and a half years in orbit.
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Re-Entry of Chinese Rocket Stage seen over Hawaii
Truly spectacular photos of a re-entering rocket stage were captured on Saturday by astrophotographer Steve Cullen who happened to stop at just the right time to capture nightscape panoramas at Mauna Kea, Hawaii showing the blazing demise of a Long March 3B upper stage.
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Re-Entering Rocket Debris captured on Video
A Ukrainian Group of meteor observers captured the re-entry of a piece of Russian rocket debris as it re-entered back on January 3, 2016.
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Russia’s Kanopus ST Satellite meets its End in fiery Re-Entry after failed Launch
Russia’s Kanopus ST ocean surveillance satellite met its untimely end over the Atlantic Ocean in the early hours on Tuesday, re-entering the atmosphere along with its Volga upper stage from which the satellite failed to separate after launch. Orbital data released in the overnight hours showed that a piece of debris detached from the spacecraft and re-entered about an hour prior to the parent object.
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NOAA 16 Satellite Breakup leaves Dozens of Debris in Orbit
The in-orbit break-up of the NOAA 16 weather satellite left a cloud of dozens of debris in orbit, data released by the Joint Space Operations Center indicates. The debris event was detected on November 25 when ground-based radars sensed a number of debris in the vicinity of the NOAA 16 satellite that had been retired since 2014.
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Re-Entry: C/NOFS
The C/NOFS satellite of the United States Air Force re-entered the atmosphere on November 28, 2015 after seven and a half years in orbit.
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Satellite Re-Entry witnessed from Northern United States
The NFIRE Near Field Infrared Experiment satellite of the Missile Defence Agency re-entered the atmosphere on Wednesday after eight and a half years in orbit to complete a demonstration mission of sensing equipment for the detection of thermal signatures of ascending ballistic missiles and the differentiation between the missile’s plume and the rocket itself.
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