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 ...
LOL
Aren’t you on Facebook?
I meant NorthEast. (Was thinking big picture NW)I can see the big dipper and north star out where I was looking. What I meant was roughly heading Northeast to say the Calgary area or to the right of it. Seemed high up. It may have been it!
A little excited here. I remember seeing Hale-Bopp and the eclipse on the same evening way back when. .
Bear in mind this sat has been lighting up anti-air radar all over the globe for an hour now.
How do you know?
It would be cool to have access to raw radar. My time was to long ago to record it.
If it is still up there it’s passing near Nigeria. I bet the 419ers won’t even notice!
Well, I can’t *know* that, but I can sure be dismayed if it *wasn’t*.
Will Obama come onto live TV to announce that he saved us all from it?
lol You may be right. .
While we’re outside looking up, with my 12X50’s I just saw Ganymede, Io, Europa and Callisto. Could even see two brown stripes on Jupiter. No red spot though. I don’t feel like setting up the telescope.
Somebody on top of their game may require a loaf on the head and photos of a disintegrating satellite in the background.
Someone needs to post on AttackWatch that this thing headed straight for Africa, RACIST Satellite!
More than likely. Even in his ‘folksy’ voice.
“I,I,I,I,I.......ummmmmmmm, aaaaaaaaaaaannnnd.........
Blah, blah, blah.
Link to photo from Minnesota
Oh Canada!
Yes, a great night to view Jupiter. I am waiting until it is a little higher in the sky here. Were you hand-holding your binoculars?
Not as ThomasThomas
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