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.
And how ?
P.Gosselin,
I,000,000,000 in 22,000,000,000 ? I would not bet on that, you must remember that NASA employees James Hansen and he is supposed to be one of the wiz kids
( 2 plus 2 makes 4 except when you take away 1, and then you have 5 )
sarc off
On television of France 2, it is said that NASA has lost track of UARS in the final stage.
This can be true. I wondered why there were no new data about the hight of the orbit in the Update #13. In this report, NASA copied the data of Update #12: (the orbit of UARS was 85 miles by 90 miles (135 km by 140 km)).
However, update #13 came two hours and 20 minutes later than update #12.
If this is true, how long lasted this blackout? One full orbit?
I find it hard to believe that James Hansen et al did not correctly and accurately predict/project/swag the EXACT impact point 90 years ago.
Apparently dropped into the ocean. I hope the various sea creatures heed the warning to not touch it. Wouldn’t want some smart squid reverse engineering the thing and subsequently challenging our supremacy on planet Earth. They might rename it Planet Water.
The science of predicting falling space debris appears to be almost identical to the science of predicting AGW.
http://www.infosatellites.com/uars-satellite-tracking-norad-21701.html It’s still moving??? Why is Norad still tracking it when its supposed to be down?
Robbie says:
September 24, 2011 at 4:31 am
NASA looks out, NASA looks in at wide areas of slowly changing stuff. They aren’t tasked with the job of tracking space junk. Perhaps you should learn what NASA does and then offer justifiable criticism.
If you really want to find where the satellite burned up, talk to the military. They look for missile launch signatures – small, fast streaks of hot exhaust gases that they have to sort out from meteors. And returning satellites.
I think the AGW angle needs further examination.
The satellite must have been brought down by the expanding atmosphere caused by CO2 emmisions.
By landing in the sea, it will have raised both sea levels and sea temperatures, hence positive feedbacks!
Any other suggestions for Joe Romms next article:-)
Fortunately, the sky was full of CO2 and the fall of the satellite was cushioned. The excessive CO2 also acted as an enveloping fire extinguisher, preventing a devastating inferno similar to when the Van Allen Belt caught fire and Admiral Nelson on the Seaview had to put it out.
Natural causes are cited for the orbital decay, but I don’t know about that….Invisible Aliens working directly with Big Oil could have conspired to effect its demise because the satellite was monitoring the Ozone Hole, a known landing area for invading spaceships.
(personally, I think way there’s way too much hype associated with this event. the satellite did its job, we got our money’s worth, it fell out of the sky and isn’t space junk. no known injuries or deaths, … now, back to our regularly scheduled AGW, and thank you Anthony for keeping us up on what’s going on)
Once it goes up, who cares where it comes down? “That’s not my department.”, says Werner Von Braun.
– Tom Lehrer
A NASA-inspired song: Satellite, Dave Matthews Band. To those eating al fresco tonight, watch out for falling debris
Andrew Harding says:
September 24, 2011 at 1:12 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 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!
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Don’t be so harsh!!
They eliminated 3 oceans and two continents.
golf charley,
You left one out. Surely, we must take into account the melting glaciers and the impact of that mass redistribution on the orbit.
I checked the aero.org map yesterday, and figured it would pass the BC/Alberta border at 21:20 PDT. I went out and watched the skies but saw nothing. CBC is reporting rumours of falling debris east of me: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/09/24/satellite-uars.html
“A precise location for re-entry was not immediately known. However, there are other reports on Twitter of debris falling over Okotoks, a town south of Calgary.”
NASA can only predict things that are not happening such as global warming, satellites falling out of the sky are more difficult. This is not fair statement about the true hard working scientists at NASA who do not have the power of the press but it is a fair statement about the direction NASA has taken.
Here’s a video of it possible crashing SE of Oklahoma City.
[ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6wW2ChL_-E ]
REPLY: Sorry, but that is the worst videography I’ve ever seen, and no that’s not it. That’s 5:38 of my life I’ll never get back – Anthony
Watched till 3 am. in Calgary. Nada for NASA. Oh well.
Beth Cooper, I LOVED Get Smart. I was thinking “Sorry about that, Chief”.
Well-l-l, I heard they had a nucular back-up. But it was just enough of a boost to help the satellite clear Texas.
NASA informs us in their Q & A that, on average, one chunk of orbital debris falls back to earth every day, but that, to date no one has been hurt. Honest!
http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/photogallery/beehives.html#leo
And just to prove they’re diligently keeping track, they have an Office of Orbital Debris to answer your each and every question… like, “Do you know where the next stop for this bus-sized satellite is?”
NORAD would probably have a better idea…Hmmm…
I went to sleep at midnight last night tired of waiting for it over the West coast of North America. Couldn’t help but wonder if it is skipping across our atmosphere instead of entering it…
=8-)
I loved the report on the BBC yesterday.
NASA say the debris is more likely to fall in the sea than on land.
FFS.
Andres Valencia says:
September 24, 2011 at 4:25 am
Global warming brought down UARS by expanding the atmosphere!
There are a number of references to just that ‘fact’, of course.
http://nightskyonline.info/?p=2241
As far as I know, NASA doesn’t maintain radar tracking stations of its own, and if they do they probably would provide a whole lot of coverage. It may have command and control up-link/down-link sites, but those would only be of any use if the satellite was still talking, which may not be the case for a decommissioned satellite about to re-enter.
Actual satellite / debris tracking is performed by the USAF Space Surveillance Network, which itself does not provide complete global coverage. If, for example, this thing was last seen over Eastern Canada heading out to sea down towards Africa, it may have maybe been tracked by Cape Cod or Thule, but it wouldn’t have another realistic shot at being seen until it got down towards Ascension Island. The track of its last orbit isn’t very rich in SSN sensors, so I can see where they might not know where it actually went down.
&!$@…last post should have said “would NOT provide a whole lot of coverage”