Achtung: German satellite to crash down tonight, won't land in Germany

As if it weren't hard enough keeping your house safe from debt collectors these days, now you have something else to worry about: a falling German satellite called ROSAT. The German Aerospace Center has estimated that the hunk of decommissioned, extra-orbital metal will enter the atmosphere sometime between 7:30pm ET tonight and 1:30am ET tomorrow. It's unknown whether any of the thing will survive re-entry, but the 1.7 ton telescope mirror onboard very well may, striking the surface at a hasty 17,398MPH. The agency doesn't know where it will fall, but did reassuringly say that it won't hit Europe -- German scientists basically telling the rest of the world to spend all night worrying while they doze away, peacefully. At least it won't be taking any of its orbital brethren with it...

Update: Looks like it landed in the Indian Ocean on Saturday night.

Achtung: German satellite to crash down tonight, won't land in Germany originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/22/achtung-german-satellite-to-crash-down-tonight-wont-land-in-g/

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