NASA Has No Clue Where UARS Will Land – North America Hit Possible
The huge, dead satellite called UARS is falling uncontrollably to Earth a little slower than expected. This isn’t exactly good news though as it might come down over the United States tonight or early Saturday. If you recall, NASA predicted that UARS would miss North America entirely yesterday! It appears that NASA has no clue where the school bus-size 6 1/2-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will land, but when they manage to figure it out they will be able to announce it 20 minutes before it might land on your house. Don’t worry too much though as the chance that any one person on Earth will get hit by debris has been estimated at about 1 in 21 trillion. I wouldn’t mind if one of those titanium pieces lands in my yard though. I wonder what scrap metal prices would be on titanium space junk.
As of 10:30 a.m. EDT on Sept. 23, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 100 miles by 105 miles (160 km by 170 km). Re-entry is expected late Friday, Sept. 23, or early Saturday, Sept. 24, Eastern Daylight Time. Solar activity is no longer the major factor in the satellites rate of descent. The satellites orientation or configuration apparently has changed, and that is now slowing its descent. 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. It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 12 to 18 hours.
Comments are closed.