NASA: Huge Defunct Satellite Will Fall to Earth This Week

NASA Space News ^ | 19 September 2011 | Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editor

[LucyT]

A dead climate satellite that has been circling Earth for 20 years will make a fiery death plunge this week, with some pieces of the 6 1/2 ton spacecraft expected to reach the surface of the planet, NASA officials say.

The bus-size Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, will likely plummet down to Earth sometime around Friday (Sept. 23), according to NASA's latest projections.

There is a 1-in-3,200 chance that UARS debris could hit a person, though NASA considers that scenario extremely remote.

"Re-entry is expected Sept. 23, plus or minus a day," NASA officials wrote in an update posted Sunday (Sept. 18). That means that by Saturday (Sept. 24), the UARS satellite should slam into Earth's atmosphere and break apart.

[GOPJ]

Check this out - the debris field is over the most populated areas. Some plutonium powered satellites were put up a few years ago.

Was this one of them?

http://www.space.com/12999-dead-nasa-satellite-falling-earth-sept-23.html

[GOPJ]

500 mile debris field... fun.

http://www.space.com/12909-uars-satellite-debris-fall.html

[LucyT]

Ping.

Update.

Wednesday, Sep. 21, 2011

RE-ENTRY ALERT: UARS, a NASA satellite the size of a small bus, will re-enter the atmosphere later this week. Best estimates place the re-entry time during the late hours of Sept. 23rd over a still-unknown region of Earth. "It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry," says NASA. "Predictions will become more refined over the next two days."

The disintegration of UARS is expected to produce a fireball that could be visible even in broad daylight. Not all of the spacecraft will burn up in the atmosphere, however; according to a NASA risk assessment, as many as 26 potentially hazardous pieces of debris could be scattered along a ground track some 500 miles long. The same report puts the odds of a human casualty at 1 in 3200.

On Sept. 15th, astrophotographer Theirry Legault video-recorded the doomed satellite during one of its last passes over France:

"The satellite appears to be tumbling, perhaps because a collision with satellite debris a few years ago," notes Legault. "The variations in brightness are rapid and easily visible to the human eye." (Other observers have reported UARS flashes almost as bright as Venus.)

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[hoagy62]

Thank you. I have downloaded it and am running it.

[mnehring]

Note the captions. That one was a joke.

[bgill]

Cue the theme to the movie, Armageddon.

[bgill]

Where's Bruce Willis when you need him?

[Reagan is King]

A plutonium "climate" satellite? I really don't know. That may make the climate kooks have a stroke if they hear that, lol. I remember them griping about that Cassini probe having plutonium on it saying we were "polluting" Saturn.

I think they use the radioactive stuff for the long distance satellites but I'm not sure.

[GOPJ]

Good one - Santa and penguins - yep - I missed it alright.

[seekthetruth]

Thanks for the ping, Lucy. Please keep us posted on the latest if you can, and thanks!

[LucyT]

[GOPJ]

I think they use the radioactive stuff for the long distance satellites but I'm not sure.

I think you're right - my curiosity about this is space junk comes down all the time. Why is this a big deal?

[LucyT]

. . . . Graphics @ # 51.

[decimon]

Thanks.

The possible debris zone is between the latitudes of northern Canada and southern South America. IOW, the possible debris zone is where everyone lives.

[twistedwrench]

Thanks LT !!
On the edge of my seat :)

[Reagan is King]

I think it’s because they think some of this one is actually going to make it through the atmosphere without burning up. Also, they won’t know until the last few hours where it might land and they have no control of the re-entry. When you think about it, landing in somewhere like Times Square or a heavily populated area would be a pretty big disaster if it actually gets through. Odds are against it though.

[LucyT]

RE-ENTRY UPDATE:

NASA has issued an update on the condition of the decaying UARS satellite:

“As of 1:30 p.m. EDT Sept. 21, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 120 mi by 130 mi (190 km by 205 km).

Re-entry is expected sometime during the afternoon of Sept. 23, Eastern Daylight Time.

The satellite will not be passing over North America during that time period.

It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 to 48 hours.”

http://www.spaceweather.com/

[seekthetruth]

Thanks for the update, Lucy.

[Tatze]

It is a 1 in 3200 chance of hitting any one of the 6-7 billion people on the planet. The chances of hitting one person in particular (you or me for example) are immensely greater.

[Lazamataz]

It is a 1 in 3200 chance of hitting any one of the 6-7 billion people on the planet. The chances of hitting one person in particular (you or me for example) are immensely greater.

Immensely greater? So there's a one-in-three chance it will hit me?

I better hit it, first.