So…Where Did That Falling Satellite Go?
- Posted on September 24, 2011 at 7:20am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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WASHINGTON (AP) — NASA’s dead six-ton satellite fell to Earth early Saturday morning, starting its fiery death plunge somewhere over the vast Pacific Ocean.
Details were still sketchy, but the U.S. Air Force’s Joint Space Operations Center and NASA say that the bus-sized satellite first penetrated Earth’s atmosphere somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. That doesn’t necessarily mean it all fell into the sea. NASA’s calculations had predicted that the former climate research satellite would fall over a 500-mile swath.
The two government agencies say the 35-foot satellite fell sometime between 11:23 p.m. EDT and 1:09 a.m. EDT. NASA said it didn’t know the precise time or location yet.
Some 26 pieces of the satellite – representing 1,200 pounds of heavy metal – were expected to rain down somewhere. The biggest surviving chunk should be no more than 300 pounds.
Photo credit: NASA
The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is the biggest NASA spacecraft to crash back to Earth, uncontrolled, since the post-Apollo 75-ton Skylab space station and the more than 10-ton Pegasus 2 satellite, both in 1979.
Russia’s 135-ton Mir space station slammed through the atmosphere in 2001, but it was a controlled dive into the Pacific.
Before UARS fell, no one had ever been hit by falling space junk and NASA expected that not to change. NASA put the chances that somebody somewhere on Earth would get hurt at 1-in-3,200. But any one person’s odds of being struck were estimated at 1-in-22 trillion, given there are 7 billion people on the planet.
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Comments (78)
furnatic
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 12:01pmHere’s a pro-tip! Go ahead and put on your tin-foil hats! Be you know the satellite somehow tracked our movements so they can clone and and then use those clones to commit a 9/11 times 999!
Report Post »Jeez, get over yourselves you nuts….
The governement isn’t building some super-army, or destroying satellites for some odd purpose. It’s a dead satellite that burned up.
Steev
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 12:50pmFurny ol chap, No conspiracy was even implied in the article – me thinks you need to fit yourself with one of those tin foil hats your referring to . LOL
Report Post »furnatic
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 1:02pmLol! It wasn’t the article that sparked that little tyraid of mine. It was some of the comments.
Report Post »libertytreecaretaker
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:45amThe government is lying to us right now that they don’t know where this thing landed I hate this crap! Where is twitter facebook and all this social media people should be reporting debris where ever it came down or are they sensoring that too!
Report Post »ILUVAMERICA
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 12:00pmNasa is full of CRAP!!
Report Post »They have satellites that can spot an ant on the ground in china BUT they don’t know where or when the satellite will fall????
LIARS!!!
These photos are a total crappy photoshop any moron can make
Something is up SHEEPLE
DarinSelby
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 3:05amThere needs to be a HUGE lawsuit taken out against NASA for the continued and willful DESTRUCTION of our atmospheric envelope!
6.5 TONS of WHAT is falling back to earth?? How much toxic cadmium and other extremely hazardous materials that are expected to be in the most highly advanced piece of equipment ever constructed?
Is the question ANYWHERE in this article being posed about how much TOXIC WASTE is getting burned up and DISPERSED by this satellite falling to earth?”
I would venture to say that just about everything this satellite was supposed to be doing at its 250 geosynchronous orbit, could have been accomplished 10X CLOSER at only an altitude of 25 MILES!
That’s where the UPPER ATMOSPHERE is. At this altitude 99.5% of the atmosphere is gone. So you tell me, is this not the EDGE OF SPACE?
Because it is not BUOYANT, it has to be out at a 250 mile orbit, or else it will do what it just did, i.e. disperse toxic compounds all the way to the ground.
Not to mention the “1 in 3200 chance of a person getting hit? These are unacceptable odds, wouldn’t you say?
Risk human life and destroy the OZONE LAYER to do WHAT?…
“$750 million UARS mission was designed to measure ozone and other chemical compounds found in Earth’s ozone layer in order to better understand how the upper atmosphere affects our planet.” WTF?
Report Post »http://darinselby.1hwy.com/floattospace.html
1TrueOne55
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 5:01pmHow about you find a Lawyer to sue God for all the Comets/Meteors/Asteroids that have hit the earth recently depositing space junk on the ground….
Or better yet go find a Cave deep enough to keep you safe from the Nuclear fallout from the Arab Winter coming soon.
Report Post »thegodfather
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:22amWasn’t there anyway scientists could have steered that into MSNBC?
Report Post »Ohello
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 12:40am26 Pieces, that is like a MIRV, any get close to Mecca or Medina?
Report Post »TheGreyPiper
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:21amOK, for all you conspiracy loving goons out there, here’s a couple interesting tidbits, further to my reply below. First, I noted that this thing is not designed for re-entry, and the break up process scatters pieces in a way impossible to predict. Second, that things like missiles will have a very predictable trajectory which can be easily calculated — that‘s why they’re so dangerous. SO: just found this elsewhere, which explains a few things which did happen:
“…apparently flipping position in its ever-lower orbit and stalling its death plunge….Until Friday, increased solar activity was causing the atmosphere to expand and the 35-foot, bus-size satellite to free fall more quickly. But late Friday morning, NASA said the sun was no longer the major factor in the rate of descent and that the satellite’s position, shape or both had changed by the time it slipped down to a 100-mile orbit.” http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/09/24/1513827/falling-satellite-slows-down-earth.html
Now do you also understand why we can track a tennis ball in orbit, but not a chunk suddenly flying free in the atmosphere?
Report Post »countryfirst
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:06amhey it had soler panel on it order to create power, We need then in order to get some of the 1/2 billion lost with the green jobs plan
Report Post »countryfirst
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:34amWow way to many type O’s, better start proof reading again.
Report Post »wouldubelieveit
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:01amIt should not be called a satellite any more because it’s falling to earth, new name should be scatterllite when you lights in the sky falling you need to scatter trying not to get hit!
Report Post »GO-FOR-LIBERTY
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:00amNASA Ha, Ha. They were given over to the Muslims by the big o awhile back. Lying just comes naturely to them. Perhaps they don‘t want anyone to know of the where abouts of the landing spot because they don’t want another “gold rush”. They do like to coat their space vehicles in gold. Mums the word.
Report Post »SLARTIBARTFAST
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 2:11pmCan you just hear the cacaphony if the satellite does hit on o’ them mooslims?
Report Post »UrbanCombatSurvivor
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 10:41amNow, I’m not trying to be conspiracy minded here…but isn‘t it odd that right when all of the controversy over the global warming scam deleting it’s data starts really picking up steam we suddenly have to burn up a climate satellite now now now?
Report Post »TheGreyPiper
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 10:59amUm yes, you are being kind of out there. There wouldn‘t be any meaningful data on the satellite that wasn’t sent back to earth. Why would there be anything of importance left on board with no way to retrieve it?
Report Post »KusoJiJi
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 10:02amthey found very few pieces of the space shuttle that broke up upon reentry over the western united states. chances of anyone finding pieces of this much smaller space vehicle will be nearly impossible unless it rained down in or near a poplulated area.
Report Post »progressiveslayer
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 10:00amToo bad it didn’t crush the two lard A$$es Mike Moore & Al Gore
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:54amI JUST FOUND A PIECE DOWN HERE AT THE BORDER… IT MUST HAVE HAD SOME TYPE OF RUSSIAN WEAPONRY ON BOARD!!!!
Nope, nevermind… forget it… I was mistaken. It’s just an AK-47.
I’ll call the ATF… I‘m sure they’ll know where it came from.
Report Post »Salamander
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:25amHmmm, odds of someone being hit by a falling satellite 1 in 3200? Hmmm, there have been more than 3200 objects launched. Thus, it is a virtual certainty that someone, somewhere will be hit by a piece of space debris! If it deorbited somewhere over the Pacific, let’s see, that would have been in an ascending arc, so it may have splattered hunderds of pieces of junk all over Canada. Reminds me of the soul who experienced a piece of Russian satellite arriving at his farm in Canada. He was so upset that he moved his family to the Souther Hemisphere to be safe–Falkland Islands, to be exact, yep, just before the Falkland Islands war broke out! I don’t know where he moved after that!
Report Post »wordweaver
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:06amThankfully, that’s not how probability works. If it worked that way, then you could flip a coin only twice and have it be a virtual certainty that the flip came up heads. Each trial has an independent probability. Every time you flip the coin, there is a 50/50 chance of a head. Every time a piece of space debris falls to earth, it has its own unique probability.
Report Post »Cat
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:11amGosh darn …
Report Post »Don’t know if I’ll pay the IRS either.
Fair nuff?
TomFerrari
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:59amThis is a perfect metaphor for ManBearPig’s 24hrs of global scamming.
Falling to earth in a blaze of… ppfpffffttt.
dud.
LOL
Report Post »LadyIzShy
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:51amthey know exactly where it fell
Report Post »decendentof56
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:02amLady…..
Report Post »It broke up into pieces, so it landed over a wide area. Yes, they probably know about where it first entered the atmosphere, but to know where all the various pieces hit would be tough. Most of it burned up upon re-entry.
Wilkins
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:15amThe satellite came to earth close to my daughter’s house in Alberta, Canada, missing them by just 749km.
A little known fact about the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is that the acronym was selected for a certain well known climatologist in the UK; UARS, or “You arse” for short.
Report Post »sodacrackers2
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:44amWilkens, that is 465 miles, you consider that close?
Report Post »Romans828
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 10:00amSodacracker, my thoughts exactly. Draw a 749 km circle around Alberta and your circle includes more area outside the PROVINCE of Alberta than in it. Including parts of Washington, Idaho, Montana and even Oregon.
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 3:04pm10 KM = 6 miles
Some of you don’t know your math.
Report Post »COFemale
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 3:08pmNevermind, I misread the miles; my bad.
Report Post »Wilkins
Posted on September 25, 2011 at 3:08am749km was a jest. Come on, it was just a little bit funny wasn’t it? As far as I know they still don’t know where any part of it came down but the story said to expect it spread over a swath of 500 miles (or 800km).
Big debris field of mostly tiny bits. Won‘t be able to salvage any of the solar panels or batteries or other cool stuff I’m afraid.
Just proves how delicate this green technology stuff really is. ;-D (laughing winking smiley alert)
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:44amI find this to be a total crock!
US Space Command tracks all objects in space at any given time. Also the DBS (Defense Ballistic Support) Satellites in orbit specifically track signatures for large missiles in the event of a Chinese or Russian nuclear missile launch, this data is transferred to Norad for tracking and we still have wide field array radar systems in operation, originally for the Safeguard Anti-Ballistic Missile System, that are still used for tracking inbound threats…
In other words, we have more then enough in orbit and ground based eye’s to track a school bus sized object coming down.
Report Post »StarlandKid
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:39amSoooo …. my questions is who is lying to us? Is it our defense system who has said that we are safe from missle attacks because they can track them? Or is it NASA who probably knows where it is but isn’t saying? You can‘t tell me that they don’t have a pretty good idea where it landed. Why are they saying they don’t? Either way, please notice that both are government agencies. Just saying. Inquiring minds want to know!
Report Post »capitalismrocks
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:11amI have a close friend who works in US Space Command and on occasion he’s called to tell me to look in the sky in my area to see a piece of re-entry matter coming in, so I know US Space Command has superb tracking systems…
My bet is on NASA not telling us the full story, I think they are potentially seeing this object hitting land in a heavily populated area. I don’t know why this is such a major concern, unless there is something onboard that may survive in tact that they don’t want meteorite hunters or other space collectors to get a hold of.
Remember, when Columbia broke up over the South West, we are talking about a MASSIVE space craft, no one was hurt from the debris, so I tend to wonder why all of the sketchy details on the re-entry of this satellite.
Report Post »Hugh Williams
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:40amYou are correct, they are lying. Now the question is why are they lying? Is there something about this satellite that they don’t want us to know or are they just so used to lying to us that they can’t tell the truth about anything?
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:38amWell what do you expect? I mean they just found out that Einstein was wrong about the speed of light. So now everything they know is wrong. So everyone is going to have to start all over.
Report Post »Salamander
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:35amNewtonian physics works in this realm! Large object hitting small object results in what anyone who ever played croquet (or had a car accident, or played football) knows. Now, get the velocity up a bit (Energy = mass x velocity squared), and you wouldn’t want it falling on your house. At least it didn’t have a nuclear power supply (See: http://see.msfc.nasa.gov/fliexp_workshop/UARS_Rudy%20Frahm.pdf) like the one on the Russian satellite that deorbited over Canada a number of years ago.
Report Post »madenoughtocomment
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:34amYou all know this . . .”we don’t know where or when it landed”. . . story is total BS don’t you? What I want to know is what is in or on this thing that they don’t want anyone to get to until they do? Powered by a nuke power plant maybe. Certainly they wouldn’t mind us coming in contact with solar panels!!!!! Good thing it didn’t land in Iran.
Report Post »Salamander
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:41amFree solar panels–finders keepers! Hmmm, I wonder what happened to all of Solyndra’s inventory? Or did they go out of business with no work-in-process? It sounded like the FBI showed up one day and the facilities were empty! Anybody ever shuttered a plant? It takes a while, There are usually a lot of machinery, tools and fixtures. Important papers get preserved. Winding down takes months. But apparently, Solyndra went ‘poof’–now you see it, and now you don’t! Follow the money-trail–look under the rainbow!
Report Post »tbolt71
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:19amIm sure NASA would know where it was if they weren’t gutted by Obama and turned into a Muslim outreach center…besides,maybe Light Squared fired up their system and jammed all of the military tracking systems….just saying
Report Post »TommyJH54
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 7:53amSooo…………how could we detect an incoming missile attack? Remember the strange explosion or missile over the pacific on November 8 2010? This makes me wonder about our security from such an attack, as they knew about this thiryfive foot 6-1/2 to “missile”. I’ll bet in came in through our southern border.
Report Post »boomboom
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:19amI’ve been wondering about that for ages, it seems. Big ol’ cover story.
Report Post »Sort of like what happened to “Peggy the Mooch”.
seeyoulaterby
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 7:44am“NASA said it didn’t know the precise time or location yet.” Are you kidding….We can’t track a 300 pound object hulling toward the us. I feel safe.
Report Post »TheGreyPiper
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 11:09amYou can relax, you and Tommy. The problem with this and Skylab before is that they are not designed as re-entry vehicles, in other words, once they start breaking up, there is just no way to predict which way the pieces will go, then, once they start going, there is no way to predict how they will move once they start biting into the air and wind starts moving them around. There is a monumental difference between trying to track this and tracking something which is aerodynamic, travelling on a deliberately planned course, and naturally is a much, much bigger target on the radar.
Really. For this, “Somewhere in the Pacific” is as accurate as you’re ever gonna get.
Report Post »quicker
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 7:40amI have to ask this question .Why couldn`t they have tryed to push this to an higher orbit untill a time they could have retreive and recyled it?
Report Post »TRVTH
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 8:56amBecause we decommissioned all the shuttles, leaving us no access to space and no way to fix anything like this.
Report Post »Slowman101
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 10:51am@QUICKER- I am making the assumption that the craft was out of fuel for its small thrusters. Fuel for them is relatively limited. Recycle? Not very likely. Good thought though.
Report Post »PubliusMM
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 7:35amDo we have a pool on when the first pieces will show up for sale on eBay?
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 7:34amWell, those odds aren’t so great if you ask me, but of course you didn’t. seems to me scientists would have thought that eventuality out and planned for some kind of self destruction that wouldn’t impact life on this planet. So where is al baby gore and his crew on what this kind of thing does to disturb our planet, lives, health, hmmmmm? Just askin’
Report Post »sodacrackers2
Posted on September 24, 2011 at 9:50amHe is in his mansion enjoying the fruits of his work on global warming. Don’t forget to only use one sheet of tp like big Al does!!
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