UARS 2239 EST 23sep11
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 ...
No worries, when it tumbles it will veer off.
UPDATE
The UARS satellite is predicted to re-enter the Earths atmosphere on the 24th September, 2011 @ 04:16 GMT ± 2 hours.
UARS
1 21701U 91063B 11267.04854895 .16366428 11908-4 16416-3 0 6403
2 21701 056.9324 262.4906 0004743 314.5742 045.6605 16.50724185109178
Period: 87.82 minutes
Inclination: 56.93°
Apogee: 170 km
Perigee: 163 km
Average orbital velocity: 7.804 km/s
Revolution Number: 10921
Predicted Location: 30.9°N, 218.9°E (NE of Hawaii?)
No thanks. Already have a bunch of that stuff already implanted in my body...lol. But, that pic Race posted shows an orbit coming right over Phoenix.
UARS 2239 EST 23sep11
The shadows are where the sun has set. If you are under the path you can see it.
the shadowed area will be the most visible, it will be on fire, shooting sparks
Over 50% chance that it will fall into the ocean.
About an hour and 20 minutes to go according to the latest tweet.
Coolio thank you, will take the kids out to look.
Look out, Gilligan!
That’s always what happens. Doubt it will land on land.
It’s over palm springs right now as far as I can tell
Over the dakotas now, heading to hudson bay
Think positive!
Then again, it could land on a cruise ship!
Heads up, Canada!
Was tracking it on my Android app, and it vanished. Did it crash already?
Is this the best link?
http://www.heavens-above.com/orbit.aspx?satid=21701&lat=46.877&lng=-96.789&loc=Fargo&alt=274&tz=CST
Altitude is 82 miles above the Earth.
No. It doesn’t update often enough.
Race Bannon has the best link.
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