A huge piece of debris from the ISS is flying towards Earth: the exact place of impact is unknown
On March 9-10, a 2.9-ton cargo pallet used in a critical mission on the International Space Station will fall on Earth. The exact location of the crash is unknown.
SSPDaily tells about it.
The pallet, which was ejected from the ISS in March 2021 by the Canadarm2 manipulator arm, will soon burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. Three years ago, it completed its task as part of a large project to replace the station's batteries.
"It's not expected to burn up completely in the atmosphere as about half a ton of fragments are likely to fall on the Earth's surface," Harvard-Smithsonian astronomer Jonathan McDowell said.
The pallet became the largest object ever ejected from the ISS. When the pallet was ejected from the station, it was at an altitude of approximately 427 km above the Earth's surface.
The journey of such a large piece of garbage began with a mission to modernize the ISS power system.
Earlier, American astronauts on the ISS succeeded in the Plant Habitat-04 experiment, growing the first fruits on four chili pepper plants in Earth orbit.