GOCE Satellite Burned Up Over Falkland Islands

After the European Space Agency lost radio communications with its Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) satellite late on Sunday, the outcome was clear — the gravity probe had re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and burned up. What was less certain, however, was where the spacecraft had burned up.

The mystery of GOCE’s re-entry has now been solved — the one-ton satellite came down over the Falkland Islands, a British overseas territory 300 miles east of the Patagonian coast in the South Atlantic Ocean.

Falklands resident Bill Chater took to Twitter to report seeing GOCE’s re-entry: Read more...