NASA satellite expected to crash to Earth Friday 9-23-11

[TraumaT]

I find it hard to believe they do not know when and where it went in. If that the case, how do they know it went into the Pacific.

Just read in a Norwegian newspaper that people are posting on Twitter that parts it has crashed down in Canada. No mention of where in Canada, though, at least not yet.

[Pigeon]

Wonder if they will hold the parts hostage from NASA.

[Pigeon]

Update #16
Saturday, September 24, 2011 10:37 AM
NASA’s decommissioned 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 Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California 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.

[ra187]

if a piece landed in my yard i would definitely hold it hostage....prolly ask for a rather large sum of of money to be placed in a backpack and put into a not so public drop place in exchange they can have there piece back....but thats just me... i would also probably strap a stick of tnt to it and take a picture and send it to nasa.

[Pigeon]

A piece od space junk might be something cool to have hanging around.

[ra187]

definitely would specially if it had some markings on proving it was from nasa or something....or you somehow acquire the hard drive from it and it has top secret stuff on it....like where elvis and 2pac are living right now

[IndicusMaximus]

ELVIS AND 2PAC SUCK!!!!

Hahahaha just kidding, foo!

[racist material removed]

[Pigeon]

(CNN) -- In the early morning hours Saturday, surviving remnants of a NASA satellite re-entered Earth's atmosphere over a remote stretch of the southern Pacific Ocean, the U.S. space agency said Tuesday.

Nick Johnson, NASA's chief scientist for orbital debris, said on the agency's website that the re-entry point was in the general vicinity of Christmas Island, south of Indonesia.

"It's unlikely that anyone actually observed the re-entry," Johnson said, adding that NASA has yet to receive any reports of a sighting from airplanes, ships or island inhabitants in the region.

A NASA statement on the website, labeled the final status report on the falling satellite, said it entered the atmosphere at 0400 GMT Saturday, midnight on the U.S. East Coast, over "a broad, remote ocean area in the Southern Hemisphere."

The exact coordinates cited by NASA were 14.1 degrees south latitude and 189.8 degrees east longitude (170.2 west longitude).

According to the statement, debris would have landed 300 to 800 miles northeast of the re-entry point.

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite was launched in 1991 on a space shuttle mission and ceased its scientific life in 2005, the NASA statement said.

It broke into pieces during re-entry, NASA said, with 26 chunks weighing a total of 1,200 pounds considered likely to reach the Earth's surface.

According to NASA, space debris the size of the satellite's components re-enters the atmosphere about once a year.