Rosat hits Bengal Sea

German dead satellite Rosat de-orbited today towards four o’clock in the morning EU time, almost a day earlier than previously expected. According to US military information, the  satellite’s impact site is estimated just off the coast of Myanmar in the Bengal Sea, following a long entry pass above the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. No damage has been reported so far, and it is still unclear, if any parts of the satellite have reached land at all.

The German space observatory Rosat has been launched in 1990 and was a breakthrough in X-Ray astronomy. Since it became uncontrollable 1999, the re-entry was just a question of time. Earth’s gravitation pulls every object in space, while the Sun’s plasma pushes them towards our planet. Rosat is one of the first large objects smashing down from space, while Hundreds of Thousand pieces of space debris are still on the waiting list for the next century.

Being a Space Tourist

It’s great to sit in a real spacecraft – of course with the proper dress code. When I was negotiating with Russian Space giant Roscosmos in 2004, they invited me to their space training facilities near Moscow, and allowed me to test seat in a Soyuz capsule. A remarkable day with remarkably friendly people all around – including  record breaking cosmonaut Sergei Krikaljov and Juri Usatchov. And of course me, coming home with a multi-million Euro space exhibition that turned out to be the most successful ever in Germany.

Fossile of Space exploration

In the morning of 7. April 2005, I found myself at the outskirts of Moscow – together with aerospace veteran engineer Vladimir Fiselovich, who introduced me to one of the five ever built pieces of hardware of the Soviet Space shuttle programme. In fact, we were standing next to a real Buran Space vehicle. What an amazing moment! Later, this spaceship was sold to a museum, since the Buran programme has been discontinued by the Soviet authorities ten years earlier.