UPDATE: a later statement from NASA below says N. Pacific off the U.S. West coast, teleconference scheduled. See below.
NASA confirms that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) has entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned/broken up. Some Twitter reports say debris was seen over eastern Canada, but unconfirmed as of this writing. No video or photos of re-entry yet. This just in from Spaceflightnow.com
0720 GMT (3:20 a.m. EDT)
RE-ENTRY CONFIRMED. The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, launched from the shuttle Discovery in 1991 to begin a new era of studying the Earth’s environment from space, has fallen from orbit.
But NASA still doesn’t know exactly when or where the re-entry happened.
“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 satellite was passing eastward over Canada and Africa as well as vast portions of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans during that period. The precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty,” the space agency says.
Natural processes caused the large spacecraft’s orbital altitude to gradually lower over time, finally tumbling into the atmosphere today where it burned up. It had spent 7,316 days in space.
NASA expected 26 fragments of the satellite would survive the superhot re-entry and hit the ground, such as titanium fuel tanks, antenna structures and beryllium brackets. The combined mass of the pieces was predicted to be 1,173 pounds (532 kg).
Authorities urge anyone finding the satellite pieces to avoid touching the objects and contact local officials.
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Twitter went crazy with all sorts of junk and fake reports tonight, I thought this was was the most troubling/amusing:
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UPDATE: Statement from NASA
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.
This is your source for official information on the re-entry of UARS. All information posted here has been verified with a government agency or law enforcement.
NASA will conduct a media telecon at 2 p.m. ET to discuss the re-entry. The telecon will be streamed live at www.nasa.gov/newsaudio.
UPDATE2: From the NASA teleconference via spaceflightnow.com
Nick Johnson, chief scientist with NASA’s Orbital Debris Program at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, says the space agency has received “no credible” reports of observers seeing the UARS re-entry. Officials think the satellite most likely fell into atmosphere over the open Pacific Ocean around 12 a.m. EDT (0400 GMT) and the surviving debris would have landed in the sea before reaching North America.
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Oh for crying out loud. They don’t know where thier own satellite crashed?
“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 satellite was passing eastward over Canada and Africa as well as vast portions of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans during that period. The precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty,” the space agency says.
Well that narrows it down a bit!
No glowing remnants here, just SE of Seattle! Was kicking back on the deck looking north for the last hour – no, nunca, nada re-entry.
Yes because NASA only checks if a piece of Ice changes 1m in Antarctica or the Arctic
In the years it was in orbit and functional, what did NASA learn about the environment from it?
According to BBC radio news this morning (0600Z) debris has landed near Calgary, Canada, so I hope that Calgary itself was not hit.
How reliably this report is I do not know.
Typical NASA! If they can’t find a satellite what hope have they got of predicting global warming!
Maybe Al Gore was sitting on the satellite and his mass caused it to plummet to Earth. LOL
“Authorities urge anyone finding the satellite pieces to avoid touching the objects and contact local officials.”
It is tempting however to pull out the pieces of hot shrapnel on the way to the hospital.
Check out the sea ice page and the Drifting “North Pole” Camera.
Thats not it is it?
Nice to know that NASA is looking and planning for the future in their space research – you know, like a massive epoch of 2 decades away – and planning for a controlled reentry.
Wait ’til the ISS makes an uncontrolled reentry, that will make a splash…
.
Nasa might like to check Ebay to find where the bits landed up.
No, no, no. You all have it wrong.
NASA knows exactly where it landed.
Somewhere on Earth.
Update #7: 1:30 pm EDT Sept.21, 2011
It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 to 48 hours.
Update #8: 7 a.m. EDT Sept.22, 2011
It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 to 36 hours.
Update #9: 9:30 p.m. EDT Sept. 22, 2011
It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 hours.
Update #10: 10:30 a.m. EDT Sept. 23, 2011
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.
Update #12: 10:30 p.m. EDT Sept. 24, 2011
The word “prediction” is omitted. The only message is that re-entry is expected between 3:45 a.m. and 4:45 am GMT and that the satellite will then be passing over Canada and Africa, as well as vast areas of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Update #13: Two hours and 20 minutes later
Re-entry was expected between 11:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, and 12:45 a.m., Sept. 24, Eastern Daylight Time (3:45 a.m. to 4:45 a.m. GMT). During that time period, the satellite was passing over Canada and Africa, as well as vast areas of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. NASA is working to confirm the re-entry location and time and will provide an update shortly.
So, there was not only no prediction of the exact time and place of re-entry. Even hours after re-entry, NASA is looking for the exact location of the re-entry of UARS.
Natural processes caused the large spacecraft’s orbital altitude to gradually lower over time,
Is that what they be calling gravity and friction now? I however, blame Bush.
I find it quite troubling that they could not track this satellite accurately and consistently. I mean, you would think all available radar tracking would have been used? All that defence budget on tracking ICBM’s and they can’t see a satellite? What is going on?
Uh-oh, Anthony. With the pointer over the post date, the time “12:36 AM” pops up. I thought you swore off posting after midnight?
I find this recent AP article (by AP Science Writer and Gorian acolyte Seth Borenstein!) to be very reassuring:
No more than 300 lbs. Dang, and here I was worried about some small piece at terminal velocity killing someone. Now I can be comforted knowing that no more than a medium-sized skyscraper or high-rise apartment building could get demolished!
Phewww…That was a close one!
“Missed us by that much.”
( Memories of ‘Get Smart.’)
With apologies to Mr. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow …
We shot a satellite into the air
It fell to earth, we knew not where …
Nothing in my backyard this morning. Then again, odds of getting hit are 1-in-22 trillion.
“Natural processes caused the large spacecraft’s orbital altitude to gradually lower over time,”
Oh, that’s OK then , just so long as it’s natural. Otherwise some il-intentioned person with a dead child may have tried to sue them for criminal negligence.
The chinese can pinpoint a old satellite and ram it with a rocket while it’s still in orbit. NASA don’t even know which half of the world their satellite has just hit.
Still waiting for the survivors to phone in to “hand over” scrap.
you tube vid … http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OfWgu5jk5g
[Note – the first few seconds are the highlight if you can call it that ~jove, mod]
Global warming brought down UARS by expanding the atmosphere!
It’s easy to imagine the bureaucrats that fill the space at NASA go, well it’s somewhere around here, arms waving around the toy globe of the planet earth, sickly yellow light flashing from inside in lieu of the green and blue that used to be there back in the day when things worked as they should.
The rest of the bureaucrowd nodding knowingly, approvingly and someone in the back, might be that former engineering guy still hoping, muttering: FFS those go’damn hippies, it’s all falling apart! Before he breaks down sobbing like a SOB. :p
And this is the organisation which should watch incoming meteorites and comets? They don’t even know where their own stuff is in the sky.
Decommission NASA please!
“Ralph says:
September 24, 2011 at 2:37 am
Nice to know that NASA is looking and planning for the future in their space research – you know, like a massive epoch of 2 decades away – and planning for a controlled reentry.
Wait ’til the ISS makes an uncontrolled reentry, that will make a splash…”
Modern spacecraft, satellites, and space stations usually contain methods to allow for controlled de-orbit. UARS was very old, like 20 years older than the oldest Russian pieces of the ISS. While they don’t know HOW their going to de-orbit the American parts of the ISS it yet, since they don’t have a shuttle to help out; they could get the Russians to help them controlled de-orbit into the ocean, or they could actually burn some fuel to send it further up in orbit and therefore “park” it for a few more decades.