No damage was done and no one was hurt
NASA’s now-defunct RHESSI (Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager) spacecraft entered Earth’s atmosphere and partially burned up over the Sahara desert. This was reported by the press service of the American space agency.
Earlier, there were reports in the media that three bright flashes were seen in Kyiv, and the head of the city military administration, Sergei Popko, connected them with the RHESSI satellite.
Not even in Kyiv: an idle NASA satellite fell to Earth over the Sahara Desert
According to the US military, the spacecraft re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 03:21 Moscow time on April 20, 2023. NASA stated:
The Department of Defense confirmed that the 660-pound spacecraft re-entered the atmosphere over the Sahara desert region at about 26 degrees longitude and 21.3 degrees latitude.
Thus, the impact site is close to the border between Sudan and Egypt, said astrophysicist and satellite tracking specialist Jonathan McDowell on Twitter. McDowell added that RHESSI was heading northeast when it crashed. NASA stressed that the agency has not yet received reports that damage or injury was caused as a result of the descent of the device.
The 270 kg spacecraft was launched aboard Orbital Sciences Corporation’s Pegasus XL rocket on February 5, 2002. His goal was to image the high-energy electrons that carry most of the energy released in solar flares.
