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 ...
Get current position at http://www.heavens-above.com/
That should float up some big fish schools! Conveniently already cooked! The water vapor should be visible by satellite, then.
LMAO!
At http://heavens-above.com click on the passes link to get a map of the sky as it passes over your house. FYI, hold the map over your head rather than looking down at it so the directions are correct.
Note - holding a map over your head or wearing a tin foil hat will not divert the direction of the falling space junk.
No visible passes found within the search period.
Texas here
I hear ya.. It’d make for one heckuva display if they hit that sucker just right.. good practice too..
all that technology and nothing to shoot it at.. what a waste.
and risk.. Hey, life is full of risk.. a tree could get ya tomorrow..
Hahaha Ironically its anther environmentalist project coming crashing down back to earth(reality). lol
Anyone know if this hunk o’ junk will be passing over NYS?
Some Texas cities that it will be visible with the naked eye around 8:16 to 8:19 pm tonight flying from the south west to the south east except Brownsville where it’ll be a bit north-ish. It will pass pretty much directly over San Antonio :
San Antonio - altitude at max 83 (with O degree being the horizon and 90 degrees being directly overhead)
Junction - altitude at max 35
Austin - 56
Brownsville - 23
Corpus Christi - 36
It will not be visible in:
Houston, El Paso, Dallas, Lubbock, or Tyler.
Why would the big piece be slower than the small ones?
Aerodynamic drag.
lol!
I’m getting my updates from @UARS_Reentry.
The time to reentry has been holding at around 5 hrs for more than an hour.
LOL Leave it to the government that they can't even track an uncontrolled crash and burn of their own satellite without stopping the damn clock on it.
"The clock is holding at T Minus 5 Hours due to low cloud cover. We are currently awaiting word from remote downrange observers on potential impact site conditions, and will resume the crash at that time." 
Yep - in about half an hour.
Duck!
I need a helmet.
Drag alone is not enough to determine impact speed. Weight is important, too.
The heavy piece hits at 99 mi/h.
They show a 59 pound piece falling at the same speed as the heavy one, an 11 pound piece falling at 59, a 2 pound piece at 40, a 4 pound piece at 30, and 11 pound piece at 81, and a 1 pound piece at 47.
There are 5 lighter types of pieces falling faster than 99.
So, some light pieces fall faster, some slower than the heaviest piece.
Details of the UARS satellite debris to hit the Earth
(1) HGA gimbal and reten. (Titanium) 59 pounds impacting at 99 miles per hour
(4) Forward bulkhead fitting (Titanium) 55 pounds impacting at 177 miles per hour
(1) SSPP gimball (Titanium) 134 pounds impacting at 130 miles per hour
(1) SSPP structure (AL-2024-T8) 348 pounds impacting at 99 miles per hour
(4) MMS fuel tanks (Titanium) 11 pounds impacting at 59 miles per hour
(3) MMS MPS batteries (SSteel 304L) 101 pounds impacting at 146 miles per hour
(4) Reaction wheel rims (SSteel 304L) 4 pounds impacting at 240 miles per hour
(1) FSS housing (Beryllium) 7 pounds impacting at 175 miles per hour
(2) FHST bracket (Beryllium) 2 pounds impacting at 40 miles per hour
(2) G.F. abutment plate (Titanium) 4 pounds impacting at 30 miles per hour
(2) G.F. base plate (Titanium) 11 pounds impacting at 81 miles per hour
(1) G.F. extension (Titanium) 1 pound impacting at 47 miles per hour
They are lazy.
Thx! Cool link! Whew! Upstate looks safe. Good thing since we never thought to get an orbital junk rider on our home insurance :-)
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