European satellite ERS-2 burned up in atmosphere, ESA announces. The satellite completed its Earth observation mission 13 years ago.
Debris fell into the Atlantic Ocean. In 2023, ESA launched a “zero debris” charter for space missions designed from 2030. There are around a million pieces of satellite or rocket debris larger than a centimeter in orbit, large enough to “disable a spacecraft” in the event of an impact. The probability of one of its debris hitting a person on the ground was less than one in a hundred billion, according to the ESA.