Scientists have earmarked a remote area of the South Pacific where bits of Europe`s huge space freighter might crash when the orbiting craft is destroyed in a suicide plunge tomorrow.
The "entry zone" is a strip 2700km long by 200km wide, according to Mike Steinkopf, who heads the mission at the European Space Agency in Toulouse, France.
About 100 parts of the 13.5-tonne craft may survive the fiery heat and stress of re-entry and splash down in pieces in the remote sea area, Mr Steinkopf said.
The entry zone is about 2500km east of New Zealand, 6000km west of Chile and 2500km south of Easter Island. Authorities in those countries had been notified, he said.
Measuring 10m long and with nearly the volume of a large shipping container, the robot craft was sent aloft in April.
It docked with the International Space Station, bringing 7.5 tonnes of equipment, water and air to its three-man crew. The craft was filled up with space station rubbish before detaching on September 6.
It was then placed in a holding orbit to position itself for re-entry, in which it will be sent on a steep trajectory that causes maximum friction with the atmosphere, helping it to break apart and burn.
Up to a third of the parts might crash into the ocean, Mr Steinkopf said, the biggest of them weighing as much as 500kg.
