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NASA
An artist's conception shows the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite in orbit.
NASA says a defunct six-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 spacecraft 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 the zone of risk," but that projection was based merely on the inclination of UARS' orbit.
"The orbital track and re-entry location are going to be more refined as the days pass," NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey told me today.
UARS was deployed from the shuttle Discovery in 1991 to study Earth's atmosphere and its interactions with the sun. The $750 million mission measured the concentrations and distribution of gases important to ozone depletion, climate change and other atmospheric phenomena. NASA says readings from UARS provided conclusive evidence that chlorine in the atmosphere, originating from human-produced chlorofluorocarbons, is at the root of the polar ozone hole.
The satellite was decommissioned in 2005. "They had put it in a disposal orbit at that point, and that disposal orbit reduced its orbital lifetime by about 20 years," Dickey said. One NASA account suggests that the satellite was at one time projected to come down in the 2009-2010 time frame.
NASA says it plans to post updates about UARS' status weekly until four days before the anticipated re-entry, and then daily until about 24 hours before re-entry. Further updates would come at 12 hours, four hours and two hours before re-entry. The Joint Space Operations Center of the U.S. Strategic Command at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base is monitoring UARS' status around the clock, NASA said.
The satellite's current orbit is 155 by 174 miles (250 by 280 kilometers), with an inclination of 57 degrees. NASA said. That means the satellite would have to descend into the atmosphere somewhere between 57 degrees north latitude and 57 degrees south. NASA estimated that the debris footprint would stretch about 500 miles.
"If there is something you think may be a piece of UARS, do not touch it," NASA said. "Contact a local law-enforcement official for assistance."
NASA's advisory emphasized out that the risk to public safety or property "is extremely small."
"Since the beginning of the Space Age in the late 1950s, there have been no confirmed reports of an injury resulting fromre-entering space objects," it said. "Nor is there a record of significant property damage resulting from a satellite re-entry."
UARS' status will be the subject of a NASA teleconference at 11 a.m. ET Friday.
Update for 11:25 a.m. ET Sept. 9: I've updated this item as well as the headline to reflect NASA's latest figure for UARS' mass. Its total dry mass is 5.7 metric tons, or 6.27 English tons, says NASA's Nick Johnson.
Tip o' the Log to Leonard David and the Coalition for Space Exploration.
Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter or adding me to your Google+ circle. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for other worlds.
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Ring, Ring.....Clint Eastwood residence......Hello, Clint this is NASA. Get your team together. Weve got another one for you.
Maybe it will land on a certain democrat and knock some sense into him.
lets send it to the moon
And it's an extremely small risk to fire guns in the air to celebrate New Years Eve too, but it seems like every year someone gets wounded or killed by this idiotic act.
Chicago?
spececraft really......really msn....when you are you actually going to start using spell checker?
What do you call Italian astronauts?
Specimen.
Eek, sorry about that, will fix. Thanks for calling it to my atenshun.
I wish a little piece, the size of a bullet, would hit every dimakrat in the country, through the head, without those a$$holes this country would once again be a paradise.
I hope you're thinking of that when you cash your Social Security check...a program put in place by Democrats. A program that has benefited millions of Americans...Democrat, Republican and everything in between. Keep that in mind when you go to the doctor & Medicare takes care of the bill...once again, thanks to Democrats.
Some people are just too busy hating to do any real thinking. Sad.
Really, what else should we thank the good ol democrats?? How my kids are going to have to pay for the democrats destroying this fine country that keeps taking a hit everyday the current guy in charge gets a brainstorm. That person smiles those pearly whites while America slides down the list of respected Counties.
Tinker I've paid into Social Security for better than 40 years now. What part of that gift should I be thankful for?
I guess we're forgetting the fact that the Dems continue those 'entitlement' programs not to benefits true Americans, but to benefit the illegal immigrants, the aunt Zeituni's and uncle Onyango's of the world...
Check out this fellow:
AlfonZo Rachel’s video, “Examining Black Loyalty to Democrats”.
I can’t believe people on here make comments about wanting
the satellite to fall in different places where people and places will be destroyed.
I hope it comes down were nothing are no one is hurt in a negative way. The
same people that complain about the wars we are in want to kill other with a
falling satellite how two faced is that. At times like this is when all the
countries should work together to see to it that the least amount of damage as
possible is cause. Most countries have them or pay to receive information or
access to others. We all need to work and stop making the stupid statements about
wanting it to land on anybody. There have been several good suggestions on here
and it was a pleasure to read those.
GOD bless our world and help us to do better and treat each
other as brothers. Sincerely, Jeff
Too late, I think it alread landed on AJT Alabama, this is not the 50's or 60's anymore.......................wake up its 2011
Jeff: I think you are getting carried away. The article said it is very unlikely that the pieces will hit anything. People here are just passing time.
.
I'm surprised they haven't got a program built into the thing to when the external temperature reaches a high point, it fragments itself into smaller pieces(without explosives), like connections and couplings come undone, instead of entering the atmosphere as one big junk. Perhaps in future projects.
And for those of you who waste their time with politics, can you go flaunt your opinions somewhere where it's more relavent? Or does everything have to do with Bush/Obama now, regardless of circumstance or conditions?
Anything written on the web is fair game for politiking. What fun is it to comment on a piece of space junk, when you can blame it all on a politician?
After all they did pass the budget which included this particular piece of space junk. Shame on them. I wonder if someone got killed if they could put one of the members of congress in jail for involuntary manslaughter?
I lived in Pine Point, Northwest Territories in 1978 when that satellite came down. It dropped pieced all over the town. There was a big piece that was found in the school yard. Our kids were thrilled that the Army came into the school to Geiger counter them and their lockers. We were not. I have pictures of them digging in my front yard in protective gear and putting pieces of the satellite into lead lined buckets.
The Canadian Army insisted that there was nothing to worried about. However, someone should look at the cancer rate in the Northwest Territories, especially around that area and include the people that lived there back then. It is the highest in Canada per capita. Just because the North has a small population doesn't mean people weren't affected by this. Fortunately it looks like the newer satellites are not radioactive but they can still cause damage.
You could purchase a geiger counter and see if there is any radiation. It will not disappear over night.
Actually the radiation itself will disappear almost immediately, what won't disappear immediately is any remaining radioactive particles. (This is the case for ionizing radiation).
An alpha particle for example is a helium nucleus. Once that helium nucleus finds a few electrons, it will just be a helium atom. The damage that it does is that it strips electrons from another atom.
Looky, Looky, Old Spot dodoed a cookie.
I'M DOIN YOUR MOM!!
Everything isn't about politics. Can't you idiot trolls just stick with the political news?
How many millions of dollars did this cost us??????
I believe it said 750, but money was growing on trees back then
What a waste of taxpayer money!!! Let the private businesses send these things up!! After all they're the ones that benefit from it!!!!! We pay for the technology and the businesses benefit from it!!!!!
Actually, if this satellite did have a hand in nailing down the cause of the ozone hole, that was $750 million well-spent. The ban on ozone-destroying chemicals was a pretty beneficial development:
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/online/3798/remember-successful-global-climate-treaty
Haha, OWNED!
Oh great, another piece of space junk!!! Just what we needed!!!!
What do you get when you cross Obama and Oprah? A 7 ton sattelite set to fail.
Dennis: What's with the kool-aid comment? My kids and I enjoy kool-aid, but I can even enjoy a glass of Moet now and then, so please clarify your stupid comment, or better yet just stick to the article.
Koolaid is a reference to Jonestown
It is also a reference to something else and i think that's what he meant...I didn't take it as a reference to some cult scenario...I was just being sarcastic.
They should slam a 737 into it then there will be nothing left. 9/11 was an inside job!!!!
Yes it was!!!!!! The government has done a hell of a job with the propaganda!!!
are we sure that the satellite wasn't built in Detroit?
Better to spend $750 million (1991) dollars on future space debris, than to spend one (2011) dime on rebuilding the countries infrastructure.
guys, just think: they were on the moon, but cannot de-orbit their trash safely :-))
except they weren't on the moon, they were on a sound stage at Area 51. :D
If they have any component(s) of the STI defence shield operational, well this is an opportunity to shine. :)
The Chinese have a satellite buster. Why can't we ask them to blow it up, just as it is about to re-enter? Offer them some more US Treasury bonds for the job? It is worth a try, and they need the target practice.
gary
did you not read the article a few days about about the danger of all the debris that is currently in orbit? Blowing it up is the LAST thing you want to do.
geeze people today are daft.
Why dont they send the space shuttle up to retrieve and study the satelite itself. They may be able to learn more about how the atmosphere and earths orbit has effect on satelites. Retrieving the satelite will also take the risk out of the calculated debris field causing damage to property and possible injury and/or death. They could of retreived it on the last mission Its not like make a special trip get it while their up their and set another in its place. Is NASA retarded or do they like to use space as a dumping grounds. The latest headlines refer to equipment left behind on the moon as trash. ET probably feels the same. LOL
about to re-enter - when all will be burnt up - it is a timing thing - but don't worry - sure they will miss