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A satellite launched a long time ago by the United States recently started to fall to Earth after its lifespan ended, and a story came out that part of it could fall on our side during the day today (9th).

So, the plane couldn't even take off for a moment today, but first of all, it passed without much damage.



Reporter Kwon Ran will tell you more details.



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ERBS is an earth observation satellite launched by the United States into space in 1984.



After completing its mission in 2005, it orbited the Earth for 18 years, and was recently crashing due to gravity.



Between 12:20 and 1:20 today, a warning was issued as it was predicted that it could fall near the Korean Peninsula.



40 domestic and international flights were banned from taking off for 40 minutes.



Around 3:00 PM, the government said it estimated that the satellite passed over the Korean Peninsula without any damage.



It is estimated that the satellite has already fallen into the sea, and the US Air Force will finally confirm the exact point and time of the crash.



As countries around the world speed up the space development race, the so-called 'space debris', which has reached the end of its lifespan or failed to launch or enter orbit, currently exceeds 9,000 tons.



Last year, the number of artificial space object crashes reached 2,400, a more than four-fold increase from the previous year.



In 2018, the possibility of the Chinese space station 'Tiangong-1' also falling on the Korean Peninsula was raised, but fortunately it crashed in the South Pacific.



In the case of the Chinese 'Langjeong 5B' rocket launched in 2020, debris fell in Cote d'Ivoire, Africa, destroying buildings.



[Cho Seong-gi/Director, Space Risk Monitoring Center, Korea Astronomical Research Institute: Data dependence is high on the United States.

If there is a threat to the Korean Peninsula, equipment capable of observation is needed...

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It seems that the whole world will have to put their heads together to find solutions, such as analyzing the risk of falling by monitoring the orbit of space debris, collecting satellites that catch and remove it in advance, and cleaning and recycling debris.



(Video editing: Jeong Seong-hoon, CG: Choi Jae-young, Screen provided by NASA)