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 ...
That crazy piece of junk wouldn’t dare fall on you! We fellow freepers would crush it to a pulp.
We’ll catch it on Water Vapor with GOES satellites if it lands in the water. WV is surprisingly sensitive.
go out and look in 10 minutes, look ssw, it is going to go over LA almost perfectly, so, most likely you wont see it
Earlier posts seemed to indicate that a nuke source is on it.
Winodog! Look up!
11:45pm - 12:45pm EDT/8:45pm - 9:45pm PDT!
Should I throw in GMT, too? LOL!
My wife says don’t worry about it - if it whacks you in the head, it is just proof that God didn’t like you, anyway.
the thing ran on NiCads, there are no radiological materials
I am too far inland to see much but at the right latitude. It is clear as a bell here so possibly could see some glare from the final part of the re-entry if it makes it to the coast. Heading outside now...
So has it already landed then?
It should be landing right now!! This is exciting.
*chuckle*
It’s gonna smack those statues on Easter Island.
Hoping it lands on my husband, and not me...
Lol, bring back the lava lamp.
Hi DJF, I checked the trajectory courtesy of Myrddin's reference to the Heaven's Above site. Hopefully it won't slow down enough to veer off its present course and more important, I hope all of it splashes down in the ocean.
I waqs wrong, it will pass the ORE and WASH border in 10 to 15 minutes, look wsw and follow it ene
That would be so funny if God smashed the kaaba with a rock from space. “So you like meteors hmm?”
OT: GMT was created after Ameila Earhart went down. Part, most (all?) of the reason she went missing was the various time zones that were involved. And she was switching between radio and telegraph beacons on the half-hour. But may have been out of sync with the island (where it was say 1:00) and the ship in the harbor (where the time was 1:30!).
Okay, back to the watch and ready to head out the door here in Seattle.
It’s well past NZ now and over open water. If it holds together it should make it to the PacNW in the next 15 or so minutes.
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