Monday, September 26, 2011

Where on Earth did the UARS fall? By: Marcella Marquez

The NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to earth Saturday September 24th, but the questions was where did its pieces make landfall? The 6 ton satellite was caught on tape by sky gazers across the country. In Kahulu, Hawaii they saw a mysterious white streak in the sky, while in San Antonia Texas they saw what seemed to be shiny dust particles. Scientist tracking the 35 foot satellite said it fell back to Earth between 8:23 pm and 10:09 pm PT. The bus like satellite passed over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans it also flew over Canada, Africa, and Australia. Yet experts cannot confirm the precise re-entry time and location of the dead satellite. “It’s most likely they will never know because it fell over an unpopulated area, where there was no one there to report for sure, and we have the last known tracking position from U.S. strategic command which was in the Pacific Northwest of the coast of North America, but it’s likely to have fallen somewhere between there and the Southwest of Australia” said Randy Kendall space debris expert at the Satellite tracking center in El Segundo California. As this massive satellite headed back to earth it began to disintegrate, 26 pieces were expected to fall down somewhere on earth on Saturday. Those pieces may have fallen into the ocean within a 30 by 500 mile debris field, said Kendall.  Lucky so far there have been no reports of any damage, due to the space junk from the NASA’s UARS. 

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