NASA's RHESSI satellite falls out of orbit and burns up in the atmosphere - debris fails to reach the surface

On 19 April at 16:00 (EDT) or 13:00 (PDT), residents of Ukraine's capital city could observe a bright blue flash. Some officials said that it was a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite which entered the Earth's atmosphere on 19 April.

Here's What We Know

The Ukrainian Air Force denied information about the downed satellite. Later, NASA representatives did the same. But the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) satellite, which studied solar flares from 2002 to 2018, has successfully descended from its orbit over Africa.

The US Department of Defence has confirmed that the 270kg satellite entered the atmosphere over the Sahara Desert. According to the US Space Command, the spacecraft, number 27370, burned up in the Earth's atmosphere. The debris did not reach the surface of our planet.

As for the bright flash in the sky over the Kiev region, it was a Lirida meteor. It is possible that in the coming days Ukrainians will see similar flares a few more times.

Source: NASA