BananaTom

Huge Tumbling Satellite Could Fall to Earth Over US Tonight or Saturday, NASA Says



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...#ixzz1YoUtpkqe



A huge, dead satellite tumbling to Earth is falling slower than expected, and may now plummet down somewhere over the United States tonight or early Saturday, despite forecasts that it would miss North America entirely, NASA officials now say.

The 6 1/2-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) was expected to fall to Earth sometime this afternoon (Sept. 23), but changes in the [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]school[/COLOR][/COLOR] bus-size satellite's motion may push it to early Saturday, according to NASA's latest observations of the spacecraft.
Related Stories If NASA's Satellite Falls In Your Backyard, Will You Return It? FEMA Prepared for Dead NASA Satellite's Plunge to Earth in Mere Days Track NASA's Falling, 6.5-Ton Satellite in Real-Time Related Video


NASA Satellite on Collision Course With Earth
What are the chances of getting hit by space junk?



"The satellite's orientation or configuration apparently has changed, and that is now slowing its descent," NASA officials wrote in a status update Friday morning. "There is a low probability any debris that survives re-entry will land in the United States, but the possibility cannot be discounted because of this changing rate of descent." [Complete coverage of NASA's falling satellite]

NASA expects about 26 large pieces of the UARS spacecraft to survive re-entry through [COLOR=blue !important][COLOR=blue !important]Earth's [COLOR=blue !important]atmosphere[/COLOR][/COLOR][/COLOR] and reach the planet's surface. The biggest piece should weigh about 300 pounds. The spacecraft is the largest NASA satellite to fall from space uncontrolled since 1979. [6 Biggest Spacecraft to Fall Uncontrolled From Space]
NASA officials have said the the chances that a piece of UARS debris hits and injures one of the nearly 7 million people on the planet are about 1 in 3,200. However, the personal odds of you being struck by UARS satellite debris are actually about 1 in several trillion, NASA officials have said.

As of 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) Friday, the UARS satellite was flying in an orbit of about 100 miles by 105 miles (160 kilometers by 170 km), and dropping. NASA launched the UARS satellite in 1991 to study Earth's ozone layer and upper atmosphere. The satellite was decommissioned in 2005.

"Re-entry is expected late Friday, Sept. 23, or early Saturday, Sept. 24, Eastern Daylight Time," NASA officials wrote. "Solar activity is no longer the major factor in the satellite's rate of descent."


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/...#ixzz1YoUtpkqe

jspooney

Well, it's only fair that it should fall on us. We sent it up there....I'd hate for another nation to sue us for billions for a falling satellite. Even still, I sure hope it falls in a field or something!

MrFish

I'm going to assume that number is a typo.

__________________
><((((º> Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.
-Ernest Hemingway

Fishermon

so where did it fall?

Hydro Therapy 2

They don't know....hahahaha

wld1985

I think its suppose to come down today? right