America's oldest 'satellite' falls to Earth

One of the first US satellites named Explorer 8 launched on October 3, 1960 after half a century of orbiting into the dense atmosphere on March 31.

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According to the announcement of the US Strategic Command, this satellite fell at 05h15 international time. RiaNovosti news agency said that according to Russian rocket industry experts, Explorer 8 went into a thick atmosphere at 0723 hrs international time. The exact location of the satellite's fall was not accurately predicted.

Satellite Explorer 8 is one of the first US satellites.

Explorer 8 satellite is the 8th US space device weighing only 40.9kg and used to determine the density and electron energy on the ionosphere. Its trajectory height is from 400 to 1.6 thousand km.

Satellites only identify small objects (micrometeorite). It worked for 54 days, and on December 27, 1960, it was "crowded" because the mercury battery ran out of electricity. The data it obtained are just enough to evaluate the helium in the atmosphere.

Initially the satellite was on orbit with a telecom point (the farthest point from Earth) about 2.2 thousand kilometers and a near-point (closest to Earth) about 420km. According to data on March 26, the height of the access point is only 167.15 kilometers and the telecom point is 189.19 kilometers.

Explorer 8 - also not the most "old" satellite left in orbit. So far, the US satellite is Vanguard 1, launched on March 17, 1958. That is the oldest satellite yet to fall.