In 2011,ESAdecided to initiate the satellites deorbiting process amid concerns over the increasing amount of space junk.
That process came to an end last week.
ERS-2 arrived back to Earth about six hours later than ESA had predicted.
This may have caused the satellite to interact with the atmosphere in unexpected ways.
ERS-2 re-enteredover the North Pacific Oceanand broke into pieces with no damage to property reported.
Story byIoanna Lykiardopoulou
Ioanna is a writer at TNW.
With a background in the humanities, she has a soft spot for social impact-enabling technologies.
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