question:
Where will space debris fall this time?

Fall of Earth satellites (AES) and other space debris

How satellites fall

See also about a special case of a cosmic catastrophe:
, article

Reasons for the fall of a satellite from near-earth orbit

Uncontrolled deorbiting - and if on the head?

The free fall formula does not describe the fall of a satellite on the Earth, because its speed in Earth's orbit is higher than the speed of a body falling in the atmosphere. The atmosphere slows down the satellite, the closer to the surface, the slower the satellite falls.

The satellite orbits the Earth at a speed of 7.9 km / sec (28,440 km / h), 220 times the speed limit on the road for a car and 31 times the speed of a commercial subsonic aircraft.

As a result of braking on the upper part of the Earth's atmosphere, the satellite's speed decreases. As the satellite's speed decreases, the centrifugal force decreases and does not counterbalance the Earth's gravity, the falling satellite burrows deeper into the atmosphere.

At an altitude of 200 kilometers, the air density is 4 * 10 ** - 10 kg / cubic meter (4 multiplied by 10 to the minus tenth power).
The closer to the surface, the higher the resistance of increasingly dense air.
At an altitude of 150 kilometers, the air density is 10 times higher (4 * 10 ** - 9 kg / cubic meter).
In one orbit, the satellite will descend by about 20 km.
(1)

Due to friction against the rarefied atmosphere, the satellite moves in a spiral around the Earth. The larger the cross-sectional area of \u200b\u200bthe satellite, which meets the drag of the air, and the lower the mass of the satellite, the steeper the spiral moves the satellite.

Satellite fall trajectory curves

Artificial satellites of the Earth (AES) have an intricate asymmetrical shape, so the satellites rotate and turn when they fall. Parts with high windage are torn off from the satellites due to the pressure of the oncoming stream and heating from friction against the atmosphere. From all this, the area of \u200b\u200bthe frontal resistance is constantly changing, and the steepness of the descent spiral changes accordingly.

For example, the structure and shape of the Phobos-Soil spacecraft with a reentry module and a landing container is shown on the Roscosmos page.

Where will the satellite fall

The satellite moves in a circular orbit around the Earth. The plane of this circle of motion is constant (almost). The angle between the equator and the plane of the orbit is called the inclination of the orbit. If you take a globe and twirl around it, it becomes clear why the satellite cannot fly above the north-south latitude, which is equal to the angle of inclination of the satellite's orbit to the equator.

Under the plane of the orbit, the Earth rotates around its axis, quite at a rather high speed. At the critical altitude of the satellite, one revolution around the Earth - 88 minutes, one revolution of the Earth - in 1440 minutes. Thus, each revolution of the satellite passes over more and more western regions. The earth and the "normal" satellites rotate from west to east.

It turns out that each revolution around the Earth passes 22 degrees west of the previous one, as viewed from the Earth.

The probability of a satellite falling at any point in the orbit is equally probable (in principle), all points of the circle are equal. But satellites rarely fly in absolutely circular orbits; satellites fly in ellipses. That is, the altitude of the satellite's flight is constantly changing - under the action of inertia, and losing its linear velocity, the satellite climbs a hill (apogee), and then rolls in, accelerating, to the lower point of the orbit (perigee).

Of course, in this case, the movement of the satellite in occurs in an atmosphere of different density, that is, the kinetic energy plus the potential energy of the effect of gravity is continuously decreasing due to friction against the atmosphere. That is, the perigee and apogee (minimum and maximum height satellite orbit).

It turns out that the satellite is moving towards the surface of the planet Earth in an intricate, uneven spiral, because - see "Satellite Fall Trajectory Curves" above. But the likelihood that the satellite will hit the atmosphere for the last time, finally lose speed and go into a real fall along a ballistic trajectory (will not go to the next spiral turn) is higher at perigee.

That is, it is possible to calculate the comparative probability of whether a satellite will fall on New York or Moscow - even until the last orbit of the satellite. Actually, the whole question is in the mathematical calculation of this last round. And so the satellite is spinning randomly - see "Curves of the trajectory of the fall of the satellite", it is impossible to accurately calculate which revolution of the satellite will be the last.

Black humor of anti-satellite defense

Anti-satellite safety: fry fish without oil in a Teflon pan, absorb Teflon, live less years - less likely to suffer from orbital debris.

Authorities claim they don't know where the satellite is falling

The authorities claim that they do not know where the satellite disappeared from orbit - it may have drowned in the ocean, or it may still be in orbit. From this we can conclude that NORAD (United States and Canada's Joint Aerospace Defense System, NORAD), military space forces, missile defense (missile defense) systems, tracking systems and airspace are blind and do not function.

And if this is so, then any activist can deliver "something" like a dirty nuclear bomb by air or along a ballistic trajectory and no one will know?

Nevertheless, the authorities through the media (or vice versa, the media through the authorities) constantly keep the people in suspense with some kind of missile defense, missile threats, anti-missiles with nuclear warheads, and in general the wrong countries with nuclear weapons.

the movement of the satellite when leaving the near-earth orbit - data from the article were used:
Aerodynamic satellite paradox
Quantum. - 1998. - No. 3. - S. 2-6.
By special agreement with the editorial board and editorial board of the Kvant magazine
Electronic physics textbook PhysBook.ru

Soyuz-2.1a carrier rocket was launched from Vostochny cosmodrome

19 satellites launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome have already fallen into the ocean, a source in the rocket and space industry told RIA Novosti. He added that most likely in the Atlantic. RIA Novosti has no official confirmation of this information yet.

On Tuesday, a Soyuz-2.1b rocket with a hydrometeorological satellite Meteor-M No. 2-1 and 18 spacecraft with a passing load was launched from Vostochny. Its flight was controlled by the combat crews of ground control facilities of the Aerospace Forces.

The Meteor's exit into the calculated orbit with an altitude of 825.5 kilometers was supposed to take place at 9:42 Moscow time, after which it was supposed to start transmitting telemetry, but the satellite never entered the target orbit.

Later, a source in the space industry said that the next launch from Vostochny, scheduled for December 22, could be postponed to next year.

According to him, the latest failure will require thorough inspections of the Fregat upper stage. Most likely, the source noted, "Fregat" will be returned to the manufacturing plant - NPO Lavochkin.

“The investigation will take time, testing and possible elimination of deficiencies will take even more. They are unlikely to be in time before the end of the year. Therefore, with a high degree of probability, this start from Vostochny will take place already in 2018, ”the agency's source said.

After an unsuccessful launch, a state commission was formed at Roscosmos, which will investigate the reasons for the unsuccessful launch of 19 satellites into orbit.

As the honored military pilot of Russia, candidate of technical sciences Vladimir Popov said, the emergency commission works quite successfully.

“But so far it is inappropriate to announce something, since the case has not yet been brought to an end,” he said.

According to Popov, the telemetry was normal - there will be no complaints about the carrier rocket, the engines.

Earlier, the pilot of a foreign plane flying over the North Atlantic in the Iceland region wrote that he saw a bright fireball that disintegrated into thousands of burning debris.

“It passed directly above us at about N50W035, around 0600 UTC. Unfortunately, my iPad didn't render the correct picture. There were many pilots who saw this, as we all started talking about it on the air-to-air frequency, - said the pilot.

Academician of the Tsiolkovsky Russian Academy of Cosmonautics Alexander Zheleznyakov believes that the pilot's message confirms the version that the Fregat upper stage with 19 satellites fell into the ocean.

"Most likely, it was just a" Fregat "with satellites, although it is possible that it was the third stage of the launch vehicle: it could enter the atmosphere around this area and burn up," he said.

The expert noted that neither NORAD (North American Joint Aerospace Defense Command) nor russian funds detection during the day did not record the appearance of the upper stage with satellites in orbit.

According to the academician, "this means that he simply does not exist in space, since the Americans usually very quickly place such information on specialized sites."

"Frigate" fell into the ocean, and it is now impossible to find it, "Zheleznyakov stated.

He also stated that the failure with Soyuz was hurting Russia's image as a provider of commercial space launch services.

On Wednesday, three fragments of the first stage of the Soyuz-2.1b launch vehicle were found in the Tyndinsky region of the Amur region.

“The search was carried out from a helicopter by specialists from Roskosmos. Now they are clearing sites in order to cut the fragments into pieces and then take them out, they will be delivered to Tsiolkovsky, ”Andrei Lozhechkin, head of the neighboring Zeysky district, told RIA Novosti.

Vladimir Putin has already been informed about an emergency situation during the launch from the Vostochny cosmodrome. "I would not go into details now," said the press secretary of the head of state Dmitry Peskov.

On Tuesday, the Kremlin said that they are waiting for detailed information about the situation, so there is no need to rush to conclusions.

It happens that the debris of space objects fall to the Earth. Let's recall the most interesting of these cases.

American satellite Transit-5BN-3

In 1964, the American navigation satellite Transit-5BN-3 crashed during its launch into orbit. It happened at an altitude of 45-60 kilometers above the waters of the Indian Ocean north of Madagascar. Most of the debris burned up in the atmosphere and everything would be fine, but the satellite contained radioactive materials, namely, 950 grams of plutonium-238.
Plutonium has scattered in the atmosphere, as a result of which the content of this radionuclide in near-earth space has increased threefold. Further analysis of the soil helped to find traces of this radioactive fuel on all continents of the earth.
By 1970, only about 5% of the evaporated radioactive metal remained in the Earth's atmosphere. Nevertheless, this incident was the first serious accident, forcing the conquerors of space to think about more safe use radioactive fuel on satellites.

Soviet satellite "Cosmos-954"

It so happened that the radioactive debris flew directly to the ground. Such a "gift" was presented in 1978 by a Soviet satellite to Canada.
The military satellite Kosmos-954 was launched in 1977 and used by the Soviet Union for naval reconnaissance. After working in orbit for only a month, the satellite suddenly went out of order due to equipment failure. It was not possible to bring it into a higher orbit for disposal, and the spacecraft began to descend uncontrollably. In early January 1974, the device completely lost communication with the control center.
The Americans, meanwhile, were following the fate of the satellite and knew that it had lost its orbit and posed a possible threat. Their fears increased after the Soviet Union, in response to an official request, confirmed that the satellite contains up to 30 kg of enriched uranium-235 as fuel.
Information quickly leaked to the press and the West began to discuss where the Soviet radioactive debris would fall. Due to the unpredictability of the result, the satellite was nicknamed "Russian roulette".
The fall occurred on January 24, 1978. Having drawn a streak of fire in the morning sky, "Cosmos-954" fell in the north-west of Canada, in the vicinity of the Great Slave Lake, and small radioactive debris from the satellite covered an area of \u200b\u200bthousands of square kilometers.

Immediately after the incident, the US authorities offered Canada assistance in eliminating the accident and collecting the debris. Of course, the Americans were also interested in the wreckage of the secret Soviet satellite itself.
The operation, dubbed "Morning Light," started immediately after receiving information about the fall. As a result of searches, about 100 fragments of the spacecraft were found. More than 90% of the radioactive fission products were collected.
The incident naturally caused an international scandal. The Soviet Union had to partially pay the costs of Canada to eliminate the accident. By different sources, The USSR paid from 3 to 7.5 million dollars. In addition, what happened caused Soviet Union suspend the launch of satellites with radioactive fuel for three years and revise their design in the direction of increasing safety.
However, serious environmental impact the disaster did not cause - this was facilitated by the low population density of the territories, as well as the greater number of rivers and lakes located on it. The water quickly absorbed the radiation and today the wreckage of Cosmos-954 no longer poses any threat.

American Skylab Station

It is not satellites that fall most epic on Earth, but orbital stations many times larger than them. One of the first and largest at that time orbital station was the American Skylab, launched in 1973.
It was actively operated for several months and by 1979 began to de-orbit ahead of schedule. It was not possible to return it to a higher orbit, since there were no engines at the station - it maneuvered with the help of ships docked to it.
According to the calculations of the Americans, the wreckage of the Skylab not burnt in the atmosphere should have fallen into an area located 1,300 kilometers south of South Africa. However, a 4% error in the calculations, as well as the fact that the station was destroyed more slowly than expected, led to a shift in the actual point of impact.

As a result, the remnants of Skylab fell to Australia, to its western part, south of the city of Perth. Some of the wreckage was subsequently found and is today exhibited in museums in Australian cities.

These are the debris that fell on Australia.

Soviet station "Salyut-7"

The Soviet orbital station Salyut-7 was launched in 1982. She became the last in the framework of the "Salute" program, carried out since the 1960s. The station was designed for five years of operation, the last crew visited it in 1986. Then, for the first time in history, Soviet cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Soloviev flew from one orbital station to another - they flew to Salyut from the recently launched Mir.
Soviet engineers did not intend to lose Salyut-7 after the service life was over. For some time it was planned to fly to her on "Buran", but this project was eventually put on the shelf. The sun prevented scientists from saving the station. The increased solar activity led to the fact that the density of the upper layers of the atmosphere increased and the station began to slow down, gradually falling.
By this time, the fuel reserve on the Salyut was almost completely depleted, so it was not possible to seriously correct its orbit. It only remained to wait until it became clear where exactly the station would fall in order to take it into the ocean.
Such data were obtained in February 1991. There was a real danger that the wreckage could cover densely populated Europe. But experts still managed to take the station to the region of South America. The Soviet government expressed its readiness in advance to compensate for the possible damage associated with the fall of the remains of the station.

As a result, the wreckage of Salyut-7 fell on the territory of Chile and Argentina. On the night of February 6-7, the inhabitants of these countries observed bright flashes in the sky, as well as a fireball that looked like a comet or an airplane. Many parts that were not burnt in the atmosphere were subsequently discovered by local farmers.

The next major orbital station, Mir, also faced the fate of falling to Earth. But the operation to sink the Mir was planned in advance and went without complications. As a result, "Mir" fell in the designated non-navigable area of \u200b\u200bthe Pacific Ocean. Residents of the neighboring islands of Fiji were able to witness this spectacle.

American Delta II missile

The fall of space debris hypothetically can pose a threat to humans. But the real chance that some piece of iron will fall on a person, according to NASA calculations, does not exceed 1/3200.
Nevertheless, at least one case is known when a space debris touched a person. According to American Lottie Williams, in January 1997, she and her friends from Tasla, Oklahoma, walked through a local park. At about 3:30 am, the company suddenly witnessed the flash of a fireball in the night sky. “We were stunned and even frightened,” she said. "We thought it was a shooting star."
Less than 30 minutes later, Lottie suddenly felt something hit her hard on the shoulder. Since no one was around at that moment, the American thought it was a stranger and began to run away. After that, something suddenly plopped behind her back, Lottie turned around and found a strange-looking piece of iron. “Her weight was about the same as an empty aluminum can, and in texture it was more like a hard cloth, but made of metal,” she said.

At first, Williams was convinced that she had found a piece of a meteorite. But when she gave it to the local astronomy club for study, it immediately became clear that the piece was a wreck of an American Delta II rocket that crashed that very night. The rocket was supposed to launch an American military navigation satellite into orbit, but fell apart along the way.
On Williams, as shown by further studies of the found material, a piece fell fuel tank rockets. The victim claims that later she even received a letter of apology from NASA, although it was soon lost.

Nineteen satellites launched into orbit from the Vostochny cosmodrome on the Soyuz-2.1b rocket fell into the ocean, RIA Novosti reports citing a source in the rocket and space industry.

It is assumed that the fall most likely occurred in the Atlantic Ocean. “Considering the reasons that led to the non-launch of the vehicles into the calculated orbit, the entire space warhead has already fallen into the ocean. Most likely in the Atlantic, ”the source said.

The Soyuz-2.1b rocket with the Meteor-M hydrometeorological satellite No. 2-1, the Baumanets-2 student spacecraft and 17 foreign nanosatellites launched on Tuesday, November 28, from the Vostochny cosmodrome. This launch was the second in the history of Vostochny.

The fact that the launch did not go smoothly became clear after Roscosmos confirmed the loss of communication with the Meteor-M satellite launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome.

The incident could be the reason for the postponement of the third rocket launch scheduled for December 22 from the new Russian cosmodrome. According to the source, the Fregat upper stage requires careful checks and may even be sent back for revision. “They will hardly be in time before the end of the year. Therefore, with a high degree of probability, this start from Vostochny will take place already in 2018, ”the agency's source says.

According to sources of "Interfax" in the rocket and space industry, the reason for the failure was the human factor - the error led to an incorrect turn of the launch vehicle in pitch and an incorrect position of the upper stage platform.

At the same time, until recently, nothing was known about the fate of the remaining satellites. Glavkosmos, the operator of the launch of foreign satellites, said they did not have information about the status of 17 foreign satellites launched from the Vostochny cosmodrome. At the same time, the operator noted that there was no connection with them either.

However, as the media reported today, all satellites can be considered lost. However, there is still no official confirmation of this information.

“All satellites - Russian and foreign, launched into different orbits with the help of the Fregat upper stage - can definitely be considered lost, regardless of whether they are in an off-design orbit or fell into the ocean. Even if the first activation of the upper stage took place normally, the altitude at which it happened is clearly not enough to bring the vehicles into the calculated orbits, ”says the source of RIA Novosti.

At the same time, the source assures that if the satellites fell into the ocean, it is the best option development of events. If they remain in orbit, it will be impossible to save them - expensive satellites will only become space debris littering outer space.

And yet a fall into the ocean is the most likely scenario. According to a TASS source in the rocket and space industry, the likelihood that the Fregat is in space is practically zero at the moment - all the possibilities of detecting the upper stage in low-Earth orbit have been exhausted and have not brought any results.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already been informed about the unsuccessful launch of satellites on the Soyuz-2.1b rocket.

“It was reported to the President. This is the only thing I can say. I would not go into details now, ”said the presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

Previously, Peskov said that the Kremlin does not have detailed information about the reasons for the emergency situation with the satellite. “I have no information, I do not think there is detailed information about what exactly happened and for what reason. We are waiting for information from our respective departments, primarily from the state corporation Roscosmos, "Peskov said.

The state corporation, in turn, has so far limited itself to a small message, without going into the reasons for what happened. “As a result of the operation of the Soyuz-2.1b LV, the head unit as part of the Fregat upper stage and the Meteor-M spacecraft was launched into a predetermined intermediate orbit. However, during the first scheduled communication session with the spacecraft, it was not possible to establish a connection due to its absence in the target orbit, "- said in a message on the official page of Roscosmos" VKontakte ".

The Soviet radio-technical reconnaissance satellite "Kosmos-1345" ("Celina-D"), which was launched into orbit back in 1982, will cease to exist in a few months. This is stated on the website of the US space control system, reports "Interfax".

According to published data, fragments of the Kosmos-1346 satellite that were not burnt in the dense layers of the atmosphere could reach the Earth's surface on November 4, 2017. As this date approaches, this forecast will be updated.

The Kosmos-1346 satellite (international identification number 1982-027A) was launched into space using the Vostok launch vehicle, which was launched on March 31, 1982 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome (Arkhangelsk region). It worked in an orbit with an inclination of 81 degrees, an altitude of 675 km at apogee, and 623 km at perigee. The mass of the satellite is 1,700 kg.

In this regard, "MIR 24" decided to recall the most famous incidents of falling satellites, orbital stations and other space objects in recent history.

TRANSIT-5BN-3: CAUTION PLUTONIUM!

In 1964, the American navigation satellite Transit-5BN-3 crashed during its launch into orbit. It happened at an altitude of 45-60 kilometers above the waters of the Indian Ocean north of Madagascar. Most of the debris burned up in the atmosphere. The satellite contained 950 grams of radioactive material. Plutonium has scattered in the atmosphere, as a result of which the content of this radionuclide in near-earth space has increased threefold. Further analysis of the soil helped to find traces of this fuel on all continents of the earth. By 1970, only about 5% of the evaporated radioactive metal remained in the Earth's atmosphere. This incident was the first serious accident that made space explorers think about safer use of radioactive fuel on satellites.

KOSMOS-954 AND THE THREAT TO CANADA

In 1977, the Soviet military satellite Kosmos-954 was launched and used for naval reconnaissance. The device worked for only a month, after which it suddenly failed. It was not possible to bring it into a higher orbit for disposal - it began to descend uncontrollably. In early January 1978, the device completely lost communication with the control center.

The Soviet Union, in response to an official US request, confirmed that the satellite contains up to 30 kg of enriched uranium-235 as fuel. Information leaked to the press, and in the West they began to discuss where the Soviet radioactive debris would fall. Due to the unpredictability of the result, the satellite was nicknamed "Russian roulette". The fall happened on January 24, 1978. "Cosmos-954" crashed in the northwest of Canada, in the vicinity of the Great Slave Lake. Small radioactive debris of the device covered an area of \u200b\u200bthousands of square kilometers. The US authorities offered Canada assistance in eliminating the accident. The operation, dubbed "Morning Light," started immediately after receiving information about the fall. As a result of searches, about 100 fragments of the spacecraft were found. The incident sparked an international scandal. Moscow had to partially pay the costs of Canada to eliminate the accident: according to various estimates, from 3 to 7.5 million dollars were paid.

In addition to satellites, to Earth in different years the debris of orbital stations fell. One of the first was the American Skylab, which was launched in 1973. It was actively operated for several months, and by 1979 it began to de-orbit ahead of schedule. It was impossible to return her to a higher orbit - there were no engines at the station, she maneuvered with the help of ships docked to her. It was expected that the debris of the station, not burnt in the atmosphere, should have collapsed on the territory of South Africa. However, due to the fact that the station collapsed more slowly than anticipated, Skylab fell in western Australia, near the city of Perth. Several fragments were found, now they are shown in local museums.

"SALUT-7"

In 1991, the epic fall of the Soviet orbital station Salyut-7 happened. The station was launched back in 1982. She became the last in the framework of the "Salute" program, carried out since the 1960s. The station was designed for five years of operation, the last crew visited it in 1986. Then, for the first time in history, Soviet cosmonauts Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Solovyov flew from one orbital station to another - they flew to Salyut from Mir.

The engineers were not going to lose Salyut-7 after the service life was over. For some time it was planned to fly to her on "Buran", but this project was decided to be postponed. The increased solar activity prevented scientists from saving the station. It led to the fact that the density of the upper atmosphere increased, and the station began to fall. By this time, the fuel reserve on the Salyut was almost completely depleted, so it was impossible to correct its orbit. It only remained to wait until it became clear where exactly the station would fall in order to take it into the ocean. In February 1991, there was a real danger that the debris could cover Europe. Nevertheless, the specialists managed to take the station to the region of South America. The government of the USSR announced in advance its readiness to compensate for the possible damage caused by the fall of the remains of the station. As a result, the wreckage of Salyut-7 fell into the territory of Chile and Argentina. On the night of February 6-7, 1991, the inhabitants of these countries observed bright flashes in the sky, as well as a fireball that looked like a comet. Many parts that were not burnt in the atmosphere were subsequently found by local farmers. Note that this event formed the basis for the drama film Salyut-7 directed by Klim Shipenko, which is scheduled to premiere in October 2017 and is timed to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the USSR's launch of the first artificial Earth satellite.

Despite the fact that, according to NASA estimates, the probability that any piece of iron will fall on a person does not exceed 1/3200, at least one case is known when a space debris touched a person. In January 1997, American Lottie Williams was walking in a local park with friends from Tulsa, Oklahoma. At about 3:30 am, the company suddenly witnessed the flash of a fireball in the night sky. A few minutes later, Lottie suddenly felt something hit her hard on the shoulder. The girl thought it was a stranger and began to run away. After that, something suddenly plopped behind her back, Lottie turned around and found a strange-looking piece of iron that looked like an aluminum can. Williams was convinced she had found a piece of a meteorite. But when she gave it to the local astronomy club for study, it immediately became clear that the piece was a wreck of an American Delta II rocket that crashed that very night. The rocket was supposed to launch an American military navigation satellite into orbit, but fell apart along the way.

"WORLD"

In March 2001, a controlled de-orbiting and flooding of the Mir orbital station took place. The station was launched on February 19, 1986 from the Baikonur cosmodrome. She worked for 15 years, 1 month and 2 days. The reasons for the decision to flood the station were the irreversible process of destruction that began after a series of technical breakdowns and the high cost of maintenance (from $ 70 to $ 200 million per year). Russia abandoned further operation of the Mir station in favor of developing its segment at the International Space Station. The operation to sink the Mir was planned in advance and proceeded without complications. The station fell in a designated non-navigable area of \u200b\u200bthe Pacific Ocean. Fijians could have witnessed this spectacle.

At the end of September 2011, the main part of the six-ton \u200b\u200bUARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) scientific satellite fell to Earth. 26 satellite debris flew past the territory of Canada and Africa and fell into the waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.

The 6.5-ton satellite was intended to study the upper atmosphere; it has been in orbit for 14 years - since 1991. In 2005, the device was taken out of service and went into sleep mode. After NASA abandoned the further operation of the satellite, it was proposed to take it out of orbit on a shuttle, but this was not done. He subsequently encountered an unknown object. Experts considered a collision with a fragment of the Soviet satellite "Kosmos-1275" as the likely cause of the destruction of the UARS.

"METEOR-1"

In May 2012, it left orbit and fell to Earth. The first Soviet meteorological satellite Meteor-1. It happened at 2:17 Moscow time, the satellite landed in the area of \u200b\u200bQueen Maud Land in Antarctica. The meteorological satellite was launched on March 26, 1969 from the Plesetsk cosmodrome and worked for about a year - in July 1970, data transmission from the device stopped. The device weighs 1.4 tons. There were two cameras and an infrared radiometer on board.

ACCIDENTS "PROGRESS"

On April 28, 2015, telemetry data from the Progress M-27M truck launched to the ISS using the Soyuz-2.1a rocket stopped receiving telemetry data from the MCC. Roscosmos said then that it was transferring the docking of the truck from the ISS to a two-day scheme. Meanwhile, in the late afternoon of April 28, Progress M-27M entered an uncontrolled rotation, and the next day, the US Air Force recorded debris of unknown origin in orbit next to the truck. Progress M-27M began an uncontrolled deorbiting, and on May 8, fragments of the truck fell into the Pacific Ocean.

December 1, 2016 cargo spaceship Progress MS-04 was launched to the ISS on the Soyuz-U rocket. At the 383rd second of the flight, data from the BR-92R-7M radio telemetry system stopped receiving data. On the same evening, a device with a non-disconnected third stage of the carrier crashed at an altitude of 190 kilometers above the uninhabited mountainous terrain in Tuva. Most of the fragments of the rocket and ship burned up in the atmosphere, but some of them fell to the ground.

Prepared by Ivan Rakovich.