NASA's Rogue Satellite Set to Re-Enter Atmosphere by Week's End

[Gladiator]

Only 1 day or so left, let's see where the debris fall...

[knotty]

i heard this on the news earlier this week, but they did not know exactly where this thing is going to land.

[Gladiator]

i heard this on the news earlier this week, but they did not know exactly where this thing is going to land.

That's right, they will get a better idea only a few hours before it starts falling... not much help really.

Chances are it will fall in the middle of nowhere and no one will notice, but who knows?

[Count]

There should be a way to blow these things to dust, a self-powdering mechanism, before they can do damage. One day there's going to be lots of them up there with no place to go but down.

[SeaWeed]

There should be a way to blow these things to dust, a self-powdering mechanism, before they can do damage. One day there's going to be lots of them up there with no place to go but down.

maybe when one of these kills or destroys something then they'll do something.......

[Orange]

It would be fitting if it fell right on top of NASA headquarters.

[whynotme]

It would be fitting if it fell right on top of NASA headquarters.

or on the house of congress

........or on the senate here in canada which houses some of our highest paid civil servants that do nothing except take our money and sleep while at work

[Gladiator]

It's expected to start falling within the next few hours.

[whynotme]

It's expected to start falling within the next few hours.

and we are getting airborne in an houroh well, if a united plane enroute to japan goes down by space debris make sure you have a drink on us

saves my kids the cremation costs and the sharks will be well fed

[Gladiator]

and we are getting airborne in an houroh well, if a united plane enroute to japan goes down by space debris make sure you have a drink on us

saves my kids the cremation costs and the sharks will be well fed

Not the best time to fly... but anyway, the plane is more likely to crash by any other cause than by being hit by that shit.

[JD426]

Not the best time to fly... but anyway, the plane is more likely to crash by any other cause than by being hit by that shit.

The odds are probably the same as opening your back door, letting a FLY go out, and then 5 minutes later shooting that same fly in midair in you backyard, with a sligshot , while blindfolded.
that said, I hope it does land in washington DC somewhere,it woud be a sign..

[Gladiator]

The odds are probably the same as opening your back door, letting a FLY go out, and then 5 minutes later shooting that same fly in midair in you backyard, with a sligshot , while blindfolded.
that said, I hope it does land in washington DC somewhere,it woud be a sign..

This satellite's entry is going to be a mess, it can fall anywhere, I really hope some piece of the debris falls on the guy who failed to plan its end.

Other satellites or spacecrafts' life spans apparently have been planned a lot better, having control over them the whole time, and making them crah in the ocean after clearing the area of ships and planes.

Still, this will probably be a non-event, due to luck more than anything else.

[whynotme]

Not the best time to fly... but anyway, the plane is more likely to crash by any other cause than by being hit by that shit.

we made it to narita
just in the united lounge with kevy and klockman waiting for our planes to depart

[knotty]

NASA satellite breaks up, plunges back to Earth


CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A six-ton NASA science satellite pierced the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and fell back to Earth, the U.S. space agency said on Saturday, but it was not yet known where the remains landed.
NASA said its decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, which took an unpredictable course as it tumbled through the upper atmosphere, fell to Earth sometime between 11:23 p.m. EDT on Friday and 1:09 a.m. EDT on Saturday.
"The precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty," NASA said of the 20-year-old satellite.
There were reports on Twitter of debris falling over Okotoks, a town south of Calgary in western Canada, most likely satellite remains.
Stretching 35 feet long and 15 feet in diameter, UARS was among the largest spacecraft to plummet uncontrollably through the atmosphere, although it is a slim cousin to NASA's 75-tonnes Skylab station, which crashed to Earth in 1979.
Russia's last space station, the 135-tonnes Mir, crashed into the Pacific Ocean in 2001, but it was a guided descent.
NASA now plans for the controlled re-entry of large spacecraft, but it did not when UARS was designed.
The 13,000-pound (5,897 kg) satellite was dispatched into orbit by a space shuttle crew in 1991 to study ozone and other chemicals in Earth's atmosphere. It completed its mission in 2005 and had been slowly losing altitude ever since, pulled by the planet's gravity.
Most of the spacecraft burned up during the fiery plunge through the atmosphere, but about 26 individual pieces, weighing a total of about 1,100 pounds (500 kg) could have survived the incineration.
The debris field spans about 500 miles, but exactly where it is located depends on when UARS descended.
With most of the planet covered in water and vast uninhabited deserts and other land directly beneath the satellite's flight path, the chance that someone would be hit by falling debris was 1-in-3,200, NASA said.
"The risk to public safety is very remote," it said.
The satellite flew over most of the planet, traveling between 57 degrees north and 57 degrees south of the equator.
UARS was one of about 20,000 pieces of space debris in orbit around Earth. Something the size of UARS falls back into the atmosphere about once a year.


http://news.yahoo.com/falling-six-to...011725135.html