A refrigerator-size ammonia tank thrown overboard from the international space station more than a year ago finally fell back to Earth late Sunday, a NASA official said.

The Early Ammonia Servicer was jettisoned during a spacewalk in July 2007. Credit: NASA TV

The 1,400-pound Early Ammonia Servicer was discarded from the orbiting outpost by spacewalker Clay Anderson on July 23, 2007 to clear the way for future assembly work.

Tracking data indicated the re-entry into Earth's atmosphere occurred around 11:51 p.m. EST over the ocean south of Tasmania.

"The ground track was on an ascending node, and so what debris may have been still together after re-entry fell in the ocean between Australia and New Zealand," said station program manager Mike Suffredini.

NASA once planned to bring the no-longer-needed ammonia tank down on a space shuttle, but plans changed and officials opted to toss it away instead.

The ammonia tank was launched in 2001 to provide additional coolant in case of a leak in an interim thermal control system that supported the initial stages of station assembly. The ammonia was never needed and the lab's permanent cooling system is now in operation.

The servicer was mounted on the P6 solar array truss. Three months after the jettisoning, the truss structure was relocated from atop the station to the far left side.

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