The Koreans got a surprising warning. They were to watch out for the falling debris of the satellite

SMS alerts in South Korea – as in Poland – are nothing new. Koreans get warnings about earthquakes or new coronavirus outbreaks in this way –

Koreans got a surprising SMS alert. The satellite falls from the sky

This time the author of the message was the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT (Information and Communication Technology). The content of the message may have come as a surprise to the residents. The ministry warned that on Monday around noon (local time) the remains of a disused American satellite will fall to Earth, and some of them may hit the Korean Peninsula.

“Some debris from a falling American satellite may crash near the Korean Peninsula. Please be careful when leaving your home at this time,” Koreans read in a message quoted by Bloomberg.

South Korea’s science ministry later added in a statement that it was the Earth Radiation Budget (ERBS) satellite launched in 1984 and deactivated in October 2005. ERBS was a research satellite, performing i.a. ozone measurements over Antarctica. The mission was supposed to last two years, but it was extended by as much as 19 years, and the data collected during this time were crucial to the implementation of the assumptions of the 1987 Montreal Protocol (regarding the prevention of the ozone hole).

Authorities later added that, as predicted, the debris of the 2.4-tonne satellite flew safely over the Korean Peninsula. No damage from the flyby was reported in South Korea (possible debris likely fell into the sea).

Last week about the expected deorbit of a dead satellite. The US agency predicted that re-entry would occur on Sunday or Monday, and the object would mostly burn up in the atmosphere. NASA noted that “the risk of harming anyone on Earth is very low.”