Tech | September 24, 2011 | 16 comments

NASA Confirmation: Satellite Is Down

source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/24/us/nasa-satellite/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

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EthicalVegan
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NASA...

UARS Re-Enters Atmosphere, Final Location Uncertain

NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23, and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24. The precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty.

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NASA: Pieces of falling satellite may be down
From John Zarella, CNN

updated 2:00 AM EST, Sat September 24, 2011

Click picture to play video
U.S. in falling satellite's strike zone



STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NASA is waiting for confirmation that satellite pieces are down
About 26 pieces, some weighing hundreds of pounds, are expected to survive reentry
It is not clear exactly where the pieces might have landed
U.S. in falling satellite's strike zone
FAA: Pilots watch for falling satellite


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Miami (CNN) -- Pieces of a defunct satellite plummeting toward Earth may have come to rest, NASA said Saturday morning

NASA says "it's possible" that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite "is down by now," according to the agency's Twitter page early Saturday. But the agency said it is seeking official confirmation with the United States Strategic Command.

About two dozen pieces of the satellite were expected to survive the crash through the Earth's atmosphere.

Late Friday night, NASA predicted satellite parts would pass "over Canada and Africa, as well as vast areas of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans."


"The risk to public safety is very remote," the space agency added.

It was not immediately clear where fallen pieces may have ended up.

About 26 pieces were expected to survive the descent. Those pieces, made of stainless steel, titanium and beryllium that won't burn, will range from about 10 pounds to hundreds of pounds, according to NASA.

Earlier, NASA said "there is a low probability" surviving debris will land in the United States, but on Saturday morning the space agency tweeted, "The U.S. is very safe from (the satellite) ... It's final orbit did not cross the United States."

Mark Matney of NASA's Orbital Debris team in Houston said there's no way to know exactly where the pieces will come down.

"Keep in mind, they won't be traveling at those high orbital velocities. As they hit the air, they tend to slow down. ... They're still traveling fast, a few tens to hundreds of miles per hour, but no longer those tremendous orbital velocities," he explained.

"Part of the problem is, the spacecraft is tumbling in unpredictable ways, and it is very difficult to very precisely pinpoint where it's coming down even right before the re-entry," Matney said.

Because water covers 70% of the Earth's surface, NASA has said that most -- if not all -- of the surviving debris will land in water. Even if pieces strike dry land, there's very little risk any of it will hit people.

However, in an abundance of caution, the Federal Aviation Administration released an advisory Thursday warning pilots about the falling satellite, calling it a potential hazard.

"It is critical that all pilots/flight crew members report any observed falling space debris to the appropriate (air traffic control) facility and include position, altitude, time and direction of debris observed," the FAA statement said.

The FAA said warnings of this sort typically are sent out to pilots concerning specific hazards they may encounter during flights such as air shows, rocket launches, kites and inoperable radio navigational aids.

NASA said space debris the size of the satellite's components re-enters the atmosphere about once a year. Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that the satellite is far from being the biggest space junk to come back.

"This is nothing like the old Skylab scare of the '70s, when you had a 70-ton space station crashing out of the sky. So, I agree with the folks in Houston. It's nothing to be worried about," McDowell said.

Pieces of Skylab came down in western Australia in 1979.

The only wild card McDowell sees is if somehow a chunk hits a populated area.

"If the thing happens to come down in a city, that would be bad. The chances of it causing extensive damage or injuring someone are much higher."

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CNN's Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.

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16 comments // NASA Confirmation: Satellite Is Down

  • Gravity_Man
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

    • http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/24/us/nasa-satellite/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

      COOL PHOTO!

      CNN...

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      NASA: Location of satellite debris not determined
      By the CNN Wire Staff
      updated 3:21 PM EST, Sat September 24, 2011

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      Miami (CNN) -- Pieces of a defunct satellite that plummeted to Earth have settled but their whereabouts are not known, NASA said Saturday.

      The space agency said the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite "is down," according to the space agency's Twitter page. NASA said debris fell to Earth between 11:23 p.m. ET Friday and 1:09 a.m. ET Saturday.

      NASA said the satellite entered the atmosphere over the North Pacific Ocean, off the west coast of the United States.

      "The precise re-entry time and location of any debris impacts are still being determined. NASA is not aware of any reports of injury or property damage," the space agency posted on its website.

      The 26 pieces expected to survive the descent -- made of stainless steel, titanium and beryllium that won't burn -- ranged from about 10 pounds to hundreds of pounds, according to NASA.

      "The U.S. is very safe from (the satellite) ... It's final orbit did not cross the United States," the space agency tweeted early Saturday.

      But reports of suspected sightings emerged from San Antonio, Texas, where a TV photographer caught images of bright objects darting rapidly in the night sky, and from Hawaii, where Robert Jeffcoat saw what he believed were two chunks from the satellite.

      Jeffcoat was running errands when the first flying object left a thick, white trail that lingered in the sky for about 20 minutes, he said. A second object followed the same path and was "massive," he said.

      "It was like a comet, but smoke," he said. "I'm guessing it landed in the ocean, the way it was going."

      Mark Matney of NASA's Orbital Debris team in Houston said before spacial rubbish fell that there was no way to know exactly where the pieces would come down.

      "Part of the problem is, the spacecraft is tumbling in unpredictable ways, and it is very difficult to very precisely pinpoint where it's coming down even right before the re-entry," Matney said.

      NASA said space debris the size of the satellite's components re-enters the atmosphere about once a year. Harvard University astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell noted that the satellite is far from being the biggest space junk to come back.

      "This is nothing like the old Skylab scare of the '70s, when you had a 70-ton space station crashing out of the sky," McDowell said.

      Pieces of Skylab came down in western Australia in 1979.

      Jeffcoat said he was amazed his home of Paia, Maui, seemed to be an ideal place to watch hunks of a satellite rain from the sky.

      "Off all the places in the world where it could hit, here it was, in Maui," he said. "It was quite weird."

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      CNN's John Zarella, Holly Yan and Mike Ahlers contributed to this report.

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    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • Gravity_Man
  • squarethecircle
    • 0
      squarethecircle  

    • really? this is NASA right? our top space org? NASA says "it's possible" that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite "is down by now,"...they have the math to figure this out for sure. "The risk to public safety is very remote,"...they think it won't hurt anyone?....but they are waiting for they gov't to tell them for sure that everything is ok? Basically they are saying that they know nothing...HOW NASA LIKE! Wake up....we are being lied to about a great deal....they know what is going on, pay attention and stop being duped to remain in your personal cubical or movie or whatever walls you may create for yourself....they are there take a look and wake up.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
    • 0
      Gravity_Man  
    • squarethecircle:

      Well, they have satellites that can view anything they want to view so you can bet they have a vault full of classified pictures showing it falling & showing where the pieces went.

      You the taxpayer-citizen-voter just doesn't get to see them. That way, passage of time, people will move on to other topics, like on Current.

      It would be quite a simple matter to put lightweight dog-tracking collars on every satellite launched => so that all ground-based photographers could follow them down. The reason NASA does not do so is their gross contempt for all humans underneath their canopy of satellites.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • squarethecircle
    • 0
      squarethecircle  
    • Gravity_Man:

      it's cheaper than paying to pick it up and recycle it...and what would we pick it up with anyway? At the same time the shuttle program was signed into the netherworld...they don't care if Northern Exposure actually happens to a few people.

    • 8 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • squarethecircle
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  

    • .

      CONFIRMED!

      .

      NASA:

      NASA...

      UARS Re-Enters Atmosphere, Final Location Uncertain

      NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23, and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24. The precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty.

      .

    • 8 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • squarethecircle
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • Image

    • http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/24/MN6V1L8O7T.DTL

      San Francisco Chronicle...

      Now NASA satellite likely to avoid United States

      Marcia Dunn, Associated Press

      Saturday, September 24, 2011

      Ho / AFP/Getty Images

      NASA offered this conceptual image of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, likely to crash through the atmosphere by early today.

      Cape Canaveral, Fla. --

      A 6-ton NASA satellite on a collision course with Earth clung to space Friday, apparently flipping position in its ever-lower orbit and stalling its death plunge.

      The spacecraft was targeted to crash through the atmosphere by early today, which put Canada and Africa in the potential strike zone, although most of the satellite should burn up during re-entry. The United States wasn't entirely out of the woods; the zone skirted Washington state.

      "It just doesn't want to come down," said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "The best guess is that it will still splash in the ocean, just because there's more ocean out there."

      Until Friday, increased solar activity was causing the atmosphere to expand and the 35-foot, bus-size satellite to free fall more quickly. But 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.

      "The risk to public safety is very remote," NASA said in a statement late Friday.

      The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, will be the biggest NASA spacecraft to crash back to Earth, uncontrolled, since the 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.

      Some 26 pieces of the UARS satellite - representing 1,200 pounds of heavy metal - are expected to rain down somewhere. The biggest surviving chunk should be no more than 300 pounds.

      Earthlings can take comfort in the fact that no one has ever been hurt by falling space junk - to anyone's knowledge - and there has been no serious property damage. 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.

      Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/09/23/MN6V1L8O7T.DTL#ixzz1YqsemYG7

    • 8 months ago
  • EthicalVegan
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