Posted: Sun, Apr 7, 2002, 12:06 PM ET (1606 GMT)
A NASA spacecraft reentered late Saturday night over southern Tibet, NASA announced Sunday morning. The High Energy Transient Experiment 1 (HETE-1) spacecraft, along with the Argentine SAC-B satellite and their Pegasus upper stage, reentered at 10:55 pm EST Saturday (0355 GMT Sunday), several hours earlier than previously reported. The reentry site was identified by NASA and the US Space Command to be 31.5 degrees north, 92.4 degrees east, which would correspond to southern Tibet. NASA estimated that only 8 kg of the 535-kg aggregation would survive reentry. The spacecraft were launched in November 1996 but failed to separate from their upper stage, preventing them from operating. NASA launched HETE-2, a replacement for HETE-1, in October 2000.

Related Links:

•  SPACE.com article
•  NASA Goddard information about reentry