The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies estimated an ERBS reentry at 10:49 p.m. Eastern plus or minus 13 hours based on data as of early 2023-01-06.
Space Track provided a final estimated ERBS reentry time of 11:04 p.m. Eastern on 2023-01-08 off the coast of Alaska near the Aleutian Islands.
The Earth Radiation Budget Satellite (ERBS) was launched in October 1984 on the space shuttle Challenger.
ERBS was intended to operate for two years and was retired in 2005.
NASA launched ERBS before the agency established its first orbital debris mitigation guidelines in the 1990s.
NASA estimated on 2023-01-06 that ERBS would reenter on 2023-01-08 with an initial predicted time of 6:40 p.m. Eastern plus or minus 17 hours based on U.S. Space Force data.