It was only an outside chance - GOCE wasnt sun illuminated on this pass, so the only way we would have seen her was if she ws low enough to get some serious heating.
10 November 2013 - 20:15 The spacecraft was spotted again over Kiruna at 19:56 CET, at an altitude of about 126 km. Temperature of the central computer is now above 50ºC. Next contact is expected at KSAT's Troll station in Antarctica at 20:50 CET.
10 November 2013 - 20:15 The spacecraft was spotted again over Kiruna at 19:56 CET, at an altitude of about 126 km. Temperature of the central computer is now above 50ºC. Next contact is expected at KSAT's Troll station in Antarctica at 20:50 CET.
10 November 2013 - 21:20
Contact was taken nominally at 20:50 CET at Antarctica’s Troll station. The temperature of the central computer and battery is around 54 ºC. Next visibility is expected again over Troll at 22:16 CET.
The new estimation for reentry of GOCE now predicts a time window between 22:30 and 0:30 CET.
10 November 2013 - 22:35 The spacecraft is still functioning nominally in Fine Pointing Mode, as seen in the last Troll pass made at 22:16 CET. The temperature of the central computer and battery is now around 64ºC, with some converters of the central computer already at 80ºC. The next possible visibility over Troll is expected at 23:42 CET.
Almost bed time for me too but heres the latest update:
10 November 2013 - 23:10
On a short pass over the Troll ground station that ended at 21:18 CET, while GOCE flew at an altitude of only 122 km, the satellite was still showing amazing system performance and delivered highly valuable data to the ground station. Using these data, that included very accurate navigation fixes along its trajectory, an orbit could be fitted that was used to forecast the re-entry of the spacecraft.
Current estimates lead to a reentry time window between 23:50 CET and 01:50 CET. The most probable reentry area lies on a descending orbit pass that mainly runs across the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. ESA will make another attempt to contact GOCE during a Troll station pass, to acquire more science and spacecraft data from an extremely low orbit altitude, and to further reduce the uncertainty in the re-entry forecast.
Safe landings GOCE - its been fun following your final day
10 November 2013 - 23:50 Contact with GOCE was made once again from the Troll station in Antarctica at 23:42 CET. The central computer temperature is at 80ºC and the battery is at 84ºC. At an altitude of less than 120 km, the spacecraft is – against expectations – still functional.
11 November 2013 - 01:15
Although GOCE operations are finished, ESA’s Space Debris Office is closely monitoring the satellite’s reentry. More information will be released as it becomes available.
11 November 2013 - 03:30
Close to 01:00 CET on Monday, ESA’s GOCE satellite reentered Earth’s atmosphere on a descending orbit pass that extended across Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica.
USSTRATCOM Re-Entry Estimation: November 11, 2013 - 00:16 UTC +/-1 Minute
Orbital Decay at the center of the Re-Entry Window places the point of Orbital Decay at the following location in the ascending node of the orbit:60° West 56° South - 360 Kilometers from the south-eastern tip of South America - 410 Kilometers south of the Falkland Islands
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