Another piece of space junk is about to fall back to Earth with the inherent possibility of hitting someone or something. The ROSAT x-ray Satellite was launched in 1990 by the German Aerospace Center with instruments built by Germany, the UK and the US. It was decommissioned back in 1998 and it has been lowering its orbit ever since. The  German Aerospace Center predicts that the satellite will crash land at the end of the month, just in time for Halloween. Probably because if a piece of this satellite hits someone or something they will argue that it was a Halloween prank gone bad to get away with it. Very clever, Folks. Very clever. 

Hit the break to read more about the

In late October or early November a Germany astronomy satellite – called ROSAT- will plunge uncontrolled back to Earth.

While slightly smaller than UARS, the German satellite is expected to have more pieces survive re-entry. The German space agency estimated that it has a 1-in-2000 chance of hitting someone – higher than the 1-in-3,200 odds NASA gave for UARS.

The German ROSAT satellite was launched in 1990, ‘died’ in 1998 and weighs two and a half tonnes.

The German space agency estimates that 30 pieces weighing less than two tons will survive re-entry. Debris may include sharp mirror shards.

The German space agency puts the odds of somebody somewhere on Earth being hurt by its satellite at 1-in-2,000 — a slightly higher level of risk than was calculated for the Nasa satellite.

Again, it seems certain that information on when – or where – the satellite might land will be scant.

But any one individual’s odds of being struck are 1-in-14trillion.

See, what did I tell you? Those sharp mirror shards will go perfect on any Halloween disguise! People will be like:

Random woman:  “Oh look honey, that guy’s disguised as a victim of space debris, with his guts hanging out and shit!”
Random woman’s husband: “Nope,  Chuch Testa I think he’s just dead”

And then  I’ll be like:

Jhonny Paranoid: Lets take his wallet and share the money Dammit!! Why can’t those bastards dispose of dead satellites in a safer way!!

True story. Unless it doesn’t hit anyone, then none of that will happen.

Heiner Klinkrad, head of the Space Debris Office at the European Space Agency, said in a webcast posted on the German Aerospace Center’s website: ‘It is not possible to accurately predict ROSAT’s re-entry.

‘The uncertainty will decrease as the moment of re-entry approaches. It will not be possible to make any kind of reliable forecast about where the satellite will actually come down until about one or two hours before the fact.’

Experts believe that two dozen metal pieces from the bus-sized Nasa satellite fell over a 500-mile span in the Pacific Ocean.

Anyhow, all jokes aside, Folks, that is no way of disposing of defunct satellites. Yes, 70% of the planet is covered in water, but the remaining 30% is land and people live there. Even if the probability that a piece can hit anyone is so low that is negligible we’re talking about a human life here. A life that is irreplaceable!

Visit dailymail.co.uk to view the original article while I draw a giant peener hate letter for NASA on my roof to be seen from space.
ANOTHER satellite to crash land soon, and the odds of it hitting someone are even higher

Thanks to Paranoid reader Croman for the tip on this one.