Satellite set to crash to Earth within hours ~nimiwae~

THE 3,100-POUND SATELLITE, which was deactivated last year, is expected to fall somewhere in a band straddling the equator that includes parts of Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Malaysia. “We are now in a position to exclude some African countries from the initial list,” a spokesman for Italy’s civil protection department said. He said the BeppoSAX satellite would start its uncontrolled re-entry between 4:35 p.m. ET Tuesday and 1:17 a.m. Wednesday. On Monday, officials had said there was a high probability the satellite could fall into an ocean. They said it should explode into some 140 pieces with only 1,500 pounds expected to remain solid and potentially posing a threat. The BeppoSAX was launched in 1996 to monitor space radiation. It is owned by the Italian Space Agency and was built by Alenia Aeronautica, a unit of state-controlled defense group Finmeccanica.

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