Re-Entry: RXTE
The Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE or XTE) spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere on April 30, 2018 after over 22 years in orbit
Read moreThe Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer (RXTE or XTE) spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere on April 30, 2018 after over 22 years in orbit
Read moreThe first spacecraft of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) – run jointly by NASA and the German Aerospace Center – re-entered the atmosphere on March 10, 2018, over four months after ending a science mission of over 15 years.
Read moreThe FIREFLY CubeSat, launched on a Minotaur rocket as part of the ORS-3 cluster mission, re-entered on November 1st, 2017 after nearly four years in orbit studying the relationship between lightning and terrestrial gamma-ray bursts.
Read moreNodes 2, a 1.5U CubeSat part of a two-satellite in-space communications demonstration project, re-entered the atmosphere on September 23, 2017 after 495 days in orbit following a May 2016 release from the International Space Station.
Read moreNodes 1, a 1.5U CubeSat part of a two-satellite in-space communications demonstration project, re-entered the atmosphere on September 19, 2017 after 491 in orbit following a May 2016 release from the International Space Station.
Read moreThe Centaur upper stage that sent four magnetospheric probes into an elliptical orbit around Earth re-entered the atmosphere on August 28, 2017 after slowly decaying from orbit over the course of two and a half years.
Read moreTechEdSat-5 – a drag brake CubeSat – re-entered the atmosphere on July 29, 2017 after 144 days in orbit
Read moreThe BEVO 2 CubeSat from Texas A&M re-entered the atmosphere in June 2017 after close to a year and a half years in orbit following deployment from the AggieSat4 micro satellite which itself was deployed from the International Space Station in January 2016.
Read moreThe Star 37D Upper Stage of the Delta 2913 launch with the COS-B Cosmic Gamma-Ray satellite re-entered the atmosphere on May 20, 2017 after over four decades in orbit.
Read moreThe Joint Space Operations Center this week added hundreds of new debris objects to their catalog of objects orbiting Earth, originating from five separate debris events, one of which was previously unknown and involved a 50-year old Delta rocket stage.
Read moreThe 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).
Read moreNASA’s PhoneSat 2.4 CubeSat re-entered Earth’s atmosphere on January 31, 2017 after over three years in orbit, studying whether a smartphone can be used to execute satellite command and control functions.
Read moreNASA’s PAGEOS 1 satellite meet its fiery end in September 2016 after five decades in orbit. PAGEOS stands for Passive Geodetic Earth Orbiting Satellite and represents a large inflatable sphere with a maximum diameter of 30.48 meters to serve as a tracking target for geodetic purposes.
Read moreThis week’s destructive re-entry of the Cygnus cargo craft after a successful mission to the Space Station was heavily studied from within the spacecraft and via an airborne campaign from below.
Read moreThe DART spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere on Saturday, May 7, 2016 after over a decade in orbit, following a launch in April 2005.
Read moreThe spent rocket stage that delivered a crew of three to orbit earlier in the week put on a spectacular show for observers in North America when slamming into Earth’s atmosphere and breaking apart in a bright fireball moving silently across the night sky.
Read moreThe 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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