* Astronomy

Satellite's doom looms sooner

Just a few weeks after a falling U.S. satellite put the world on alert, German space officials say the defunct ROSAT X-ray telescope is on course to make a fiery re-entry in the Oct. 20-25 time frame - which is earlier than previously predicted.
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Update
The ROSAT satellite is predicted to re-enter the Earths atmosphere on (or after) the 11th October, 2011 @ --:-- GMT  ± -- hours.

ROSAT
1 20638U 90049A   11276.96760513 +.00329679 +60186-4 +48287-3 0 05264
2 20638 052.9787 245.6128 0005001 075.4897 284.6689 16.04570242191536

Period:       89.76 minutes
Inclination: 52.98°
Apogee:     266 km
Perigee:     259 km
Revolution Number: -
Predicted Location:  -

After the six-tonne UARS satellite of NASA that crashed into the Pacific ocean over a week ago, another is approaching fast for a fiery death plunge soon.
This time, it's a defunct German space telescope called ROSAT, which is set to hit the planet at the end of October or early November, scientists said.
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The time and location of re-entry cannot be predicted precisely. At present, scientists expect the X-ray satellite, which completes an Earth orbit in about 90 minutes, to re-enter in early November 2011.Currently, this date can only be calculated to within plus/minus five weeks.This time slot of uncertainty will be reduced as the date of re-entry approaches. However, even one day before re-entry, the estimate will only be accurate to within plus/minus five hours. All areas under the orbit of ROSAT, which extends to 53 degrees northern and southern latitude could well be affected by its re-entry. The bulk of the debris will impact near the ground track of the satellite. However, isolated fragments could fall to Earth in a 80 kilometre wide path along the track.
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Ed ~ The decaying circular orbit will add to the uncertainty of the re-entry location.