German Satellite Hit Asia Or Nearby Ocean

It didn't garner as much attention as the recent NASA satellite that came back to earth a few weeks, ago, but it was bigger, and could have done more damage.

The German ROSAT mini-van sized satellite that returned to earth over the weekend is believed to have either hit a remote part of Asia, or landed in the Andaman Sea or Indian Ocean--or perhaps inland China.  The Satellite, launched in 1990 to study black holes, among other space phenomenon,  was a defunct or shut down unit that had performed it's duties and had been orbiting the earth for some time.  NASA refers to them as "decomissioned".   According to the Harvard-Smithsonian Institute for Astrophysics, the satellite re-entered the earth's atmosphere sometime after 9:45pm saturday night, but exactly where it come down is not known.   One possible trajectory would have put it near the Chinese cities of Chongquing or Chengdu, both with several million inhabitants, but even with restrictive Chinese media policies, had the bird landed near them NASA officials are certain there would have been news reports.  According to US Military reports from other monitoring satellites, the reason for the lack of data is because they believe it came down over the ocean, and missed landfall altogether.   This is the second satellite to return to earth in less than three months; however, NASA says it does not have any other satellites from the US or friendly nations that are due to decay in orbit and return to earth for at least another 25 years.