Brace yourselves for impact. German scientists are warning of another out-of-control satellite that is heading to Earth and is expected to make landfall by the end of the month.

Scientists from the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) say the 2.4 ton satellite, named ROSAT has drifted away from its orbit and will re-enter the atmosphere in the next few weeks. DLR has not been able to communicate with the ROSAT since its last mission back in 1999. It has no propulsion system to control it re-entry, so scientists will be unable to guide where it will land.

The ROSAT was a built from a joint effort from the UK and the U.S. and had a mission of observing the stars. It launched out of Cape Canaveral in the U.S in June 1990. The satellite made many invaluable discoveries in its 8 years of operation before finally shutting down for its last mission in February, 12, 1999.

DLR now warns that although the satellite will break up into pieces when it re-enters the atmosphere these pieces which weighs a total of 1.6 tons could still cause damage if it hits an inhabited part of Earth. ROSAT's heat resistant mirror may survive the fiery re-entry and falling debris may include the mirror's jagged shards.

Experts are estimating the chances of a person being hit by the falling debris as one in 2000. This is slightly higher than previous estimates of one in 3200 chance of getting hit when NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite crashed last month.

"It is not possible to accurately predict ROSAT's re-entry," said Heiner Klinkard, head of the Space Debris Office at the European Space Agency, in a webcast posted on the German Aerospace Center's website.

"The uncertainty will decrease as the moment of re-entry approaches. It will not be possible to make any kind of reliable forecast about where the satellite will actually come down until about one or two hours before the fact."

UARS crashed harmlessly into the Pacific Ocean last month and scientists expect the same for the ROSAT satellite.