Italy notified Brazil that the BeppoSax astronomy satellite would...
Italy notified Brazil that the BeppoSax astronomy satellite would reenter the earth’s atmosphere in the next 2 weeks, the Brazilian Space Agency (BSA) said. The satellite was launched in 1996 to study sources of energy in space. The Italian…
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Space Agency (ISA) said the mission ended a year ago “due to poor and degrading spacecraft conditions.” The spacecraft is likely to reenter the atmosphere May 1, but could do so anytime between April 29 and May 4, the BSA said. It said that as BeppoSax fell, it was likely to break into 42 pieces but exactly how much damage those fragments would do couldn’t be determined until 2 days before the fall. ISA said it wasn’t known exactly where the pieces would land, but it identified the countries it expected would be affected -- near the equator in S. America, Africa and several islands near Australia.