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 ...
and unless the republicans raise taxes on the rich, there are another 153 satellites that are going to fall on us.
If it was lit up over Minnesota, I don’t imagine it would last too much longer after that.
I understand, I just get wild about this. My name is on one of those Iridiums.
That was on the previous pass.
Where are you seeing that? The two sites I am watching have it past South Africa headed toward Antarctica.
Looks like an Iridium flare picture. I’ve taken a few.
News, as in something written by a journalist? Good luck with that, haha.
May the Schwartz be with you.
Oops, just realized that was an old comment.
Dude, you're replying to a message from two hours ago. This thing orbits the entire planet every 90 minutes. Plus it sounds like it's actually already down in northern Canada.
I agree. I saw a Russian satelite fall back in August of 1969 and a meteor the size of a basketball over head a few years ago and both were spectacular, not like fireworks.
You’re probably seeing an animation of the predicted track as if it wasn’t hitting atmosphere.
And you beat me to pointing it out :)
The sites are merely a graph telling us where the satellite should be if its in orbit based on periodically updated coordinates. They are models.
You up near Mono Lake?
Could be that, or it could be UARS still lit by sunlight, if it was taken shortly after sunset.
Ha ha. ;)
What are you talking about now?
I think it is still up three
Just saying this, like most of life, is a bit too complex to be understood by your typical journalist. Bu that's only because journalists are stupid and lazy.
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