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Goodbye: A robotic arm on the ISS releases a pallet of old nickel-hydrogen batteries from the station into space

Photo: dpa

Even if particles got through, a hit on an inhabited area would be unlikely: Europe's former space chief Jan Wörner assesses the danger from debris from a battery pack from the International Space Station falling to Earth as low.

According to the information, the object is a platform with battery packs that is about the size of a car and weighs 2.6 tons.

It was deliberately separated from the ISS on March 21, 2021, only to enter the atmosphere years later.

»Batteries really like to burn.

I assume that the package will almost completely burn up in the atmosphere," said Wörner to the dpa news agency.

"Maybe you'll see the disassembly as a beautiful shooting star." And: "There's a lot of water under the large area that the package flies over."

20 hour time window

The "Bild" had warned on Thursday of a "battery rain" over Germany, and in response to a SPIEGEL query, authorities said that a threat to Germany was "very unlikely."

(You can read an interjection from SPIEGEL reporter Christoph Seidler on the subject here: “At least this problem doesn’t have to worry us too much.”)

The case is different than the crash of the German X-ray satellite Rosat in 2011, explained Wörner.

"Unlike the batteries, Rosat was also made of glass and ceramic, neither of which burns up completely." As the head of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) at the time, he "really sweated," said the 69-year-old.

"Luckily the debris fell into the Bay of Bengal."

According to DLR information on Thursday morning, the object could enter the atmosphere over northern North America.

In all likelihood it will not affect Germany.

The time window specified was a 20-hour corridor around late Friday evening German time.

On Thursday afternoon, the Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance (BBK) distributed official danger information via several warning apps, according to which the probability of rubble falling on Germany was very low.

“If the risk increases, you will receive new information,” it said.

However, “luminous phenomena or the perception of a sonic boom” are possible.

For Wörner, one thing is clear: such crashes should be a reason to finally take steps against dangers from space, he said.

»The size of the battery pack is nothing compared to what is flying around uncontrolled in space.

We finally need an early warning system to protect the earth.«

ani/dpa