It’s over now but what if! 6 ton NASA satellite comes down uneventfully
Apparently that school bus sized chunk of space junk came back to earth sometime Friday night or early in the morning on Saturday, September 24th and any remaining pieces plunged into the Pacific Ocean. It would be preferable that NASA knew more precisely where and when the object was going to hit this planet but on the other hand maybe it is best because if they told us just might panic! So be grateful we did not know any more than we did.
Waiting for eye witness observers now, NASA and the United States Air Force Joint Space Operations Center can only say they calculate the 35 foot satellite mostly fell into the ocean.
Decommissioned satellite was used for climate research
Happily serving mankind for the past twenty years, the six ton 35 foot long satellite that fell to earth early this morning had simply lived out its life expectancy before going into a spin and succumbing to earth’s gravitational pull. It had “died” when running out of fuel back in 2005. Space junk often falls back to earth and we never know about it. With so much leftover or no longer usable “stuff” up there it and pieces fall every day without consequence. The satellite, called a UARS had been built and was launched prior to the implementation of programs to prevent the uncontrolled type of crash witnessed last night.
1200 pounds of heavy metal with no music!
Said to represent approximately 1200 pounds of heavy metal in some 26 pieces, the satellite was the largest spacecraft owned by NASA to come back to Earth on a crash course since the 75 ton Skylab crashed down in mid July back in 1976 and Pegasus 2 (a ten ton satellite) came back to earth in 1979. The decommissioned Russian space station, Mir was a 135 ton gob of space junk when it came down in 2001 but that was a controlled crash thanks to newer technology and better control.
Fire balls aflame falling to Earth are not appreciated!
Amidst much speculation in recent days the satellite controversy is over, until the next piece of space junk decides to come crashing down. Tracking the satellite’s progress was an “iffy” proposition because no one could predict precisely just where it would land once entering the earth’s atmosphere. Odds were given at one in 3200 that someone would be harmed but when you consider there aree some seven billion people on this planet, that makes it about one in 22 trillion. Thanks technology!
