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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...

Well FRiends...the UARS, according to NASA this morning, is now supposed to come down between 0000 and 0400 UTC, or between 5pm and 9pm Pacific time. According to 'Orbitron', during that time frame UARS will cross the US three times, once over the Eastern Seaboard (Entering near the Louisiana/Mississippi border, up over the Appalachians, and exiting along the US/Canada border near upstate New York) , once across the Midwest (on a line from AZ/NM border up to the ND/MN border), and finally crossing the Pacific Northwest (entering off the Oregon coast, crossing between Portland and Seattle, and exiting the US...

The US space agency (Nasa) says that its out-of-control climate satellite is expected to crash to Earth sometime on Friday evening (GMT). There is still much uncertainty over when and where the satellite will re-enter the atmosphere. Experts say they will get a more precise idea in the last 12 hours before the satellite is due to return. The US space agency says the risk to life from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is 1 in 3,200. Satellite and space expert Dr Stuart Eves stressed the large uncertainties involved in tracking the "decay" of satellite orbits (their slow fall...

A NASA satellite the size of a school bus is just days away from taking a fiery plunge into Earth’s atmosphere and could set off a dazzling display when it does … if anyone is able to see it. NASA's 6 ½-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is due to fall somewhere on Earth Friday (Sept. 23), though exactly where and when remains a mystery. If you happened to be lucky enough to be within viewing range of a satellite that is re-entering the atmosphere, the sight, put simply, would amount to a short-lived but spectacular fireworks display. Unlike a fireball...

CAYENNE, French Guiana — An Ariane-5 rocket launch that was postponed because of a strike at the Kourou space centre in French Guiana is to go ahead on Wednesday after the dispute was resolved, officials said. The National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) said that the deal to end the strike "includes an immediate resumption of work by Telespazio." The strike launched by Telezpazio, a business at the base specialised in radars, delayed Tuesday's launch that would have put two telecommunications satellites into orbit. "Without the radar, we can't follow the launch all along its trajectory," said Joel Barre, head...

(Reuters) - A defunct NASA science satellite is expected to fall back to Earth on Friday, showering debris somewhere on the planet although scientists cannot predict exactly where, officials said. The 6.5-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, was carried into orbit during a space shuttle mission in 1991. It operated for 14 years,collecting measurements of ozone and other chemicals in the atmosphere. Since completing its mission in 2005, UARS has been slowly losing altitude, tugged by Earth's gravity. On Friday, the 35-foot-long, 15-foot diameter (10.6-metres long, 4.5-metres diameter) satellite is expected to plunge into the atmosphere, NASA reported on...

Heads up! That's the word from NASA today (Sept. 7) given the impending re-entry of a 6.5-ton satellite through Earth's atmosphere. The huge Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere in an uncontrolled fall in late September or early October. Much of the spacecraft is expected to burn up during re-entry, but some pieces are expected to make it intact to the ground, NASA officials said. The U.S. space agency will be taking measures to inform the public about the pieces of the spacecraft that are expected to survive re-entry. "It is too early to say...

NASA says a defunct seven-ton satellite is due to re-enter the atmosphere — with the potential to rain debris upon Earth. The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, is expected to come down in late September or early October, the space agency said today in an advisory. "Although the spececraft will break into pieces during re-entry, not all of it will burn up in the atmosphere," NASA said. The agency said it's too early to say exactly when UARS will make its final plunge, or exactly where any debris will come down. Russian news reports suggested that Moscow was "in...

Designed for camping in the great outdoors or entertaining guests while tailgating, Dish Network announced the release of the Tailgaiter, a mobile satellite television antenna that’s compatible with Dish Network service. Weighing in at 10 pounds, the satellite antenna is encased in a 10-sided plastic shell with a handle for lugging around the device. The shell is designed to protect the antenna in poor weather conditions and allows the dish to rotate within the casing to align with the satellite. The Tailgater portable antenna also requires a Model ViP 211k HD Solo receiver to pick up high definition stations. The...

Lost Russian Communications Satellite Found in Wrong OrbitBy Peter B. de Selding, Space News Staff Writer Updated at 4:15 p.m. EST PONTE VEDRA, Fla. — A $300 million Russian telecommunications satellite launched Aug. 18 disappeared from the view of ground controllers and the U.S. space surveillance network along with the rocket upper stage that carried it into orbit, according to industry officials and the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. More than 24 hours after the 5,800-kilogram Express-AM4 satellite separated from the Proton rocket's Breeze-M upper stage, neither object could be found, officials said. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network of ground radars...

History was created when the PSLV-C17 blasted off on Friday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota to successfully launch the GSAT-12 satellite. For the first time in India’s space history, a woman scientist was in-charge of a mission as complex as this. Fifty-one-year-old Dr TK Anuradha, a resident of Bangalore, was project director of the PSLV-C17/GSAT-12 mission. She along with her team also designed and developed the GSAT-12 at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore. An elated Dr Anuradha told DNA over the phone from Sriharikota that Friday’s launch was special not just for her, but also for...

I am new to Television - have only had cable for 2 years and the price keeps inching up. I want to change to satellite TV and I keep getting the ads for both Direct TV and The Dish. I can't make heads nor tails of the offers and wanted to know if anyone could point me in the right direction? I am a techno-peasant so please be gentle with me. Thanks.

New satellite images have shown the alarming speed at which Pakistan is constructing a weapons-grade nuclear reactor. The aerial images, taken on April 20, show the rapid building progress of the fourth reactor to produce plutonium in Pakistan's Khushab facility. The site was barren in 2009 and the facility 'costing billions' was undetectable by satellite just 17 months ago, but has since grown at an alarming rate. The facility in Khushab is the fastest growing nuclear program in the world, with the speed of the latest reactor's construction prompting concern from U.S. officials

A pair of low Earth-orbiting demonstration satellites built by Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems for the first time on March 16 detected and tracked a ballistic missile launch through all phases of flight, a Northrop Grumman official said March 22. So-called birth-to-death tracking of a ballistic missile launch had never been done before from space -- and is the most significant achievement to date for the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) spacecraft, said Doug Young, Northrop Grumman’s vice president of missile defense and warning programs. “It’s the Holy Grail for missile defense,” Young said during a media briefing here. [Top...

China's surging military space program is poised to challenge U.S. aircraft carrier operations in the Pacific, as Chinese military spacecraft already gather significant new radar, electrooptical imaging, and signal intelligence data globally. During 2010, China more than doubled its military satellite launch rate to 12. This compares with three to five military missions launched each year between 2006 and 2009. Since 2006, China has launched about 30 military related spacecraft. Its total of 15 launches in 2010 set a new record for China and for the first time equaled the U.S. flight rate for a given year. Most U.S. public...

The first Delta IV Heavy liftoff from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., illustrated the dramatic purge of hydrogen that results in flames swirling around the three Pratt & Whiney Rocketdyne RS-68 Common Core Booster engines that comprise the first stage. The Jan. 20 launch from Space Launch Complex-6 (SLC-6) boosted the classified NROL-49 mission into a highly inclined orbit for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Because it was classified, details on the payload, its orbit and the results of the liftoff were not announced. But United Launch Alliance (UAV) reports, “The pad is in great shape and the rocket performed as the...

The US Air Force Research Laboratory has picked the candidates for its next major spaceflight experiment. And the nominees are...AMWSE, the Advanced Missile Warning Sensors Experiment; and AXOIM, the Advanced Experiment in Orbital Manipulation. AFRL plans to solicit proposals for AMWSE and AXIOM via a broad area announcement to be released in three to six months, and to select one or both concepts to be built and flown. AMWSE will characterize space-based missile warning sensor technologies. AXOIM will demonstrate new uses for advanced solar arrays combined with Hall Effect electric thrusters. The baseline for AXOIM is a single lightweight, high-power...

To be honest, some of the proposals are long overdue and need international agreement. There are more and more satellites up there and issues like frequency interference, space debris, and other problems associated with the explosion in space technology need to be addressed by the international community. But as with everything this administration does, they go way beyond reasonable and enter the absurdly optimistic realm of trusting Russia and China to play by the rules without much in the way of verification. Washington Times: The administration has signaled that it is preparing to accept the European Union's draft Code of...

Electronic Systems Center officials have issued two competitive contract orders, each worth $107 million, for preliminary design of the Space Fence program. They awarded the contracts to Raytheon Corp.'s Integrated Defense Systems and Lockheed Martin Corporation's Mission Systems & Sensors Division. The Space Fence program, with a total anticipated value of more than $3.5 billion, will deliver a system of geographically dispersed ground-based sensors to track space debris and provide timely assessment of space events, said program manager Linda Haines. "That will allow us to reduce susceptibility to collision or attack, improve the space catalog accuracy and provide enhanced space...

The United States and China both used advanced missiles to blow up their own satellites in a mutual show of military strength, documents published in Thursday's Telegraph newspaper showed. The memos, leaked by the WikiLeaks website, revealed that the US responded to China's 2007 destruction of a weather satellite by blowing up its own malfunctioning satellite in a "test" strike. The US insisted at the time that it undertook the operation to prevent the satellite returning to earth with a toxic fuel tank which would pose a health hazard. A leaked cable sent from the US embassy in Beijing in...