PSA: The sky is falling...! (UARS update)

[poodlesrule]

"As of 7 a.m. EDT Sept. 22, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 115 mi by 120 mi (185 km by 195 km). Re-entry is expected sometime during the afternoon of Sept. 23, Eastern Daylight Time. The satellite will not be passing over North America during that time period. 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."

Be careful out there, in far-away lands..!

Updates here (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/uars/).

[Tig]

Wow, I remember working STS-48 when UARS was deployed! Mission Specialist Sam Gemar was also in our small town's (Nassau Bay) volunteer fire department that I was in. Really cool guy. Not like many egotistical pr*cks that fill the astronaut corps.

Anyway, this was one of the most clever observatories NASA ever created. It was functioning 2 1/2 years longer than expected, too.

Here's the official blurb:
During its planned 18-month mission, the 14,500-pound observatory will make the most extensive study ever conducted of the Earth's troposphere, the upper level of the planet's envelope of life sustaining gases which also include the protective ozone layer. UARS has ten sensing and measuring devices: Cryogenic Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer (CLAES); Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS); Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS); Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE); High Resolution Doppler Imager (HRDI); Wind Imaging Interferometer (WlNDII); Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor (SUSIM); Solar/Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment (SOLSTICE); Particle Environment Monitor (PEM) and Active Cavity Radiometer Irradiance Monitor (ACRIM II).

http://i.space.com/images/i/10432/original/sts-48-patch.jpg?1308864335
http://uars.gsfc.nasa.gov/www_root/homepage/uars-science/images/UARS_COVER1.jpg

[marnold]

Apparently it hit Canada. Good thing no one lives there *ducks*

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0924/NASA-satellite-falls-on-Canada-as-space-junk.-No-one-hurt

[Spudman]

Litterbugs.:mad

[Tig]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnXoBDvbqzo