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We all have to eventually retire, but some of us may do so in a blaze of glory. Over the weekend, a NASA satellite will retire –or die– burning in the atmosphere when it falls back to Earth. Talk about a final glorious goodbye!
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“The OGO 1 spacecraft is the first in a series of six Orbital Geophysical Observatories. It was launched to conduct diversified geophysical experiments to gain a better understanding of Earth as a planet and to develop and operate a standardized observatory-type satellite.” read NASA’s page on the soon-to-be decommissioned satellite.
OGO 1 was launched in September 1964 and successfully collected data until 1969. It was officially dismantled in 1971, but continued to remain in space after that, zooming around Earth in a two-day orbit.
You have to give him credit. It lasted quite a long time in space, as all of its siblings have already returned to Earth and the last one entered the atmosphere in 2011. The other satellites were launched in 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968 and 1969, all after OGO 1 already it would have found its place around our blue planet.
Observations from the University of Arizona’s Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) and the University of Hawaii’s Asteroid Last Warning System (ATLAS) detected OGO 1 on its way to Earth and researchers from CSS, the Center for Near Earth Objects (NEO) Studies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the European Space Agency’s NEO Coordination Center successfully identified the satellite.
They estimated that OGO-1 will re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, decomposing in the process, on Saturday, August 29, 2020, around 5:10 p.m. EDT, over the South Pacific roughly halfway between Tahiti and the Islands. Cook. If you are concerned that the satellite may collide with Earth, rest assured that its reentry is perfectly safe.
“The spacecraft will rupture in the atmosphere and pose no threat to our planet, or anyone on it, and this is a normal final operational event for retired spacecraft,” NASA officials said in their update on OGO. 1. Goodbye OGO 1!
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