Posted on 09/24/2011 2:48:55 PM PDT by LibWhacker
The 6-ton UARS satellite — the biggest piece of space debris to fall from the sky since Sky Lab in 1979 — fell back to Earth early Saturday morning. Debris is reported to have been found near Calgary, Canada.
The wait is over. NASA's bus-sized Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) has fallen, becoming the largest runaway chunk of space junk to drop back down to Earth since two satellites, including the behemoth Sky Lab, punched the atmosphere in 1979.
"We can now confirm that #UARS is down!" reported the official NASA Twitter account. "Debris fell to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23, and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24."
The satellite, broken up into 26 titanium and other hard alloy pieces expected to survive the fiery descent, reportedly fell at least partly on land. Twitter and YouTube reports pinpointed landfall in Okotoks, Canada, near Calgary.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Damn. I had Chad in the pool.
I had Pelosi’s house in san fagcisco as mine..
Why, in the media, are Canadian towns seldom suffixed with a province name? I never see something like ‘Winnemucca, USA’ but I will often see names like ‘Okotoks, Canada.’ Does ‘province’ not have the same importance as ‘state?’ Is this common in the Canadian press?
Anyone ever watch Northern Exposure?
One of the boyfriends of Maggie, the pilot, was struck by a satellite and bought it.
(It seemed all of Maggie’s boyfriends bit the dust.)
Glad everyone is OK.
“Only one person – Lottie Williams of Tulsa, Okla. – has ever reported being struck by space debris.”
That happened to me once, but I was out in the woods when my sister was bitten by a moose and I never bothered to report it.
No, it isn’t common in the Canadian press. It irritates me as well.
We built the Intergalactic Space Station!
Y'ain't ridden, 'til yu'v ridden in a Philippine Jeepney
Y'ain't ridden, 'til yu'v ridden in a Philippine Jeepney
space ping
This space chunk of junk was a global warming satellite launched by NASA (way back when) in the 1990s
It was always space junk same as global warming is junk science
Hey, Canada, don’t touch our junk.
"Okotoks" is derived from "big rock" in the language of the Blackfoot Indians. The town is named after a giant boulder in the nearby prairie that has no other rocks anywhere around it and looks like it was just dropped there on the prairie from outer space. Here's a photo of the landmark "big rock":
So, yeah -- I can sure picture a satellite or other strange visitor from space plopping down right next to it!
My first car was a vomit green 1973 Plymouth Satellite. I never hit anyone with it though.
Nice... never heard of it before
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