Big, doomed 'TIE fighter' satellite seen from space just days before crash-landing back to Earth
Photographs taken in space show a big dead satellite as it tumbled towards a fiery end in Earth's atmosphere. Australian commercial imaging company HEO Robotics was able to capture images of the European Space Agency's (ESA) ERS-2 Earth observation satellite on Feb. 14, 2024 as the satellite made an ungraceful fall towards our planet. ERS-2, or European Remote Sensing 2, launched in 1995 and spent 16 years observing our planet from space until its mission ended in 2011. Over a span of two months that year, ESA performed dozens of deorbiting maneuvers to begin bringing ERS-2 down for a safe demise in Earth's atmosphere. That end is finally due to come this week. In an update posted on Sunday (Feb. 18), ESA said that the rentry ERS-2 is expected to take place on Wednesday (Feb. 21) at 10:19 a.m. ET (1519 GMT), plus or minus around 19 hours. This uncertainty is due to the "i NFL uence of unpredictable solar activity, which affects the density of Ear...