Gigantic telescope to crash down on Earth this weekend

The debris of Germany's ROSAT space telescope are expected to fall down on planet Earth this weekend. Scientists have not been able to determine the site of the crash.

The uncontrollable satellite may fall down on Earth any time during October 21-25. The space observatory weighing 2.4 tons was launched in 1990. It finished working in 1999, after the discovery of 80,000 X-ray sources.

Scientists will be able to determine the place of the fall ten hours before it happens, CNews said.

Specialists say that the satellite will fall into several dozens and even hundreds of fragments. The probability of human casualties during the fall of the debris is extremely low - one in 2,000.

The uncontrollable landing of the satellite began in 2009, when German scientists said that they had lost communication with the spacecraft, Ht-news.com website said.

ROSAT will become the next "heavyweight" spacecraft after the USA's UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) since the 1990s. The debris of this satellite weighing 6.5 tons crashed on Earth on September 24. The spacecraft fell into the ocean, no one was hurt, The Russian Times said.