Posted on 09/23/2011 10:07:53 AM PDT by Evil Slayer
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 school bus-size satellite's motion may push it to early Saturday, according to NASA's latest observations of the spacecraft.
"The satellite's orientation or configuration apparently has changed, and that is now slowing its descent," NASA officials wrote in a morning status update today. "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."
NASA expects about 26 large pieces of the UARS spacecraft to survive re-entry through Earth's atmosphere 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
clear sky here in nw wa...should I go out and look?
Numbers Im seeing seem to indicate it will fall in the Pacific about 1000 miles off the coast of California...
Not yet since it is passing SE Australia and NZ at the moment.
Did he serve in the Vietnam War, perchance??? ;-)
mid coast Oregon here, but too foggy (and too far south) to see very far.
That’s what I think, too, although I’ll head outside just in case it gets a second wind.
Lol!! The lava lamp!!
Any clue on possible places it might land? I’ve been busy all day and can only check FR/new every so often for a short while.
I’m in SW OR not too far from the coast. I don’t mind dying (continuing on my journey) but I’d rather not do it tonight getting crushed by a piece of space junk!
Yeah, saved 10,00 lives and had a sh&tload of medals!!!!!!
I doubt you will see anything, but can’t hurt!
It’s about 88 miles above the Earth right now. When it is down at the poles its orbit is a little higher and at the equator a bit lower.
0345 GMT (11:45 p.m. EDT Fri.)
The likely re-entry window has opened. NASA predicts UARS will make its fiery plunge into the atmosphere within the next 60 minutes. The satellite is south of Australia at the current time, about to fly over the Pacific Ocean toward a crossing of Canada, then the Atlantic Ocean and Africa, if UARS remains in orbit that long.
You knew that was gonna happen my friend...................:*)
0345 GMT (11:45 p.m. EDT Fri.)
The likely re-entry window has opened. NASA predicts UARS will make its fiery plunge into the atmosphere within the next 60 minutes. The satellite is south of Australia at the current time, about to fly over the Pacific Ocean toward a crossing of Canada, then the Atlantic Ocean and Africa, if UARS remains in orbit that long.
thanks will monitor outside
God bless all of you in case I am a victim. :-)
From Twitter:
SpaceflightNow Spaceflight Now
by UARS_Reentry
Re-entry window has opened. NASA predicts UARS will make its fiery plunge into the atmosphere within next 60 minutes. tinyurl.com/3qqomnv
Just saw the comment above about maybe 1000 miles off the coast of CA.
I hope it falls in the water. I wonder if there is a nuke stuff on it, quite a few have nukes on them.
New Twitter feed, .2 hour
12 minutes....
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