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NASA Satellite Falls Back To Earth; Landfall in Canada
CNET, among many other sources, reports that the declining orbit of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite has declined all the way; the satellite reentered and broke up in Earth's atmosphere last night, though the exact time, and thus location, of the reentry was unknown at the time. CNET quotes NASA's release, which says the satellite "fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23, and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24." The Christian Science Monitor has a newer story, which reports that at least some debris from the satellite hit land in Okotoks, Canada, with no injuries. NASA's Science Office page on the satellite (not yet updated to account for the deorbit) says the satellite was launched in 1991, with a planned operational life of three years.
Not to throw away Nasa's success, but I just want to point out this fun game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerbal_Space_Program It's indie, lets you build your own spacecraft etc :P
It seems that Canada is a falling satellite magnet. In 1977, a Soviet satellite fell in Canada also- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954.although that one was probably much worse in terms of damage because Kosmos 954 had a nuclear reactor and some of that debris was radioactive. The only other really major fall where something fell on land was Skylab which fell over Australia. So Canada has managed to get 2/3 major falls that have hit land. That's pretty impressive. I think that Canada and the US are both members of the Space Liability Convention, which has provisions for fallen satellites, so if there's any actual damage from this, the US will need to pay Canada.
Calgary, a city of a million+ people is only a few kilometers from Okotoks!! I better turn on the TV!
I'm quite unimpressed by NASAs inability to get out an accurate prediction of the target area. It's along "just" a 500 km path but the fact that they couldn't say where it was going to hit should have made them work even harder on the problem and, more importantly, public relations!! I.e. have a website that displays the situation in near-realtime, not just a post once a day saying "we don't know and we don't care; but we'll let you know when it happened"
I just hope there's not too much more junk like that up there. Or at least that they'll be better prepared next time.
Please, dear NASA, give us the info you have next time instead of invoking security through oblivion, it may not seem a big deal to you - statistically the earth is big - but I'd rather check the info several times a day while taking a nice long walk than sitting in the basement and hope that it'll be over before my rations run out (metaphorically speaking; I don't even have a basement :-o).
CAPTCHA: breakage
send in mulder and scully to check it out!
ABC and Fox News are now reporting that, although it may have started breaking up over Calgary, it seems that it went down in the ocean west of Australia. Guess we're gonna have to wait and see...
mmm... yeah... You see, we're putting the cover sheets on all TPS reports now before they go out...
I shot a rocket into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where
Until next day, with rage profound,
The man it fell on came around.
In less time than it takes to tell,
He showed me where that rocket fell;
And now I do not greatly care
To shoot more rockets in the air.
(Tom Masson, 1866-1943)
Cellphones, rockets, chemicals... we live in the age of personal empowerment. There is great danger coming from mentally handicapped individuals, as probably is the case of that Norwegian moron -- so we must limit access to some technologies.
But I suspect this is somewhat ineffective, just like security by obscurity. Does someone have any idea on how to prevent such things?
Being able to shoot back? In Texas we had one big case of a gun toting moron. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby's_massacre We have not had one since, because the criminal is not the only one armed. I am ignoring Fort Hood, as that was federal land, and follows federal gun laws, so no one on the military base was armed. True irony. (The moron even had to buy the gun he used at a private gun store... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Hood_shooting ) The Norway story would have been better like this one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Colorado_YWAM_and_New_Life_shootings#New_Life_Church_shooting
Now I will get Offtopic, which does apply, and Troll, which mean "I disagree." Who will win?
Maybe this is a *CRAZY* conspiracy theory but I think NASA was trying to take out the Enterprise in nearby Vulcan. http://www.vulcantourism.com/about-vulcan-albertas-star-ship-fx6-1995-a.html
The Christian Science Monitor appears to have been taken in by the hoax posting of a video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OfWgu5jk5g) supposedly showing reentry near Okotoks. Looks like the video was posted too early to be legit. UARS is definitely down but nobody seems to know exactly where yet.
When I read the summary, I couldn't help thinking of the Pioneer One series.
They're a free download - http://vo.do/mWuQ
is here. Not the best camera in the world (I think he said iPhone) but it clearly captures the break-up and large pieces burning.
As of now, YouTube is significantly ahead of NASA and Air Force intelligence (it has a much larger workforce).
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
...in a forest in Canada, does anybody notice?
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
Anyone familiar with the Pioneer One indie series? If the RCMP happens to find a cosmonaut inside what's left of that satellite, it's time to be worried!
Space Liability Convention, which has provisions for fallen satellites, so if there's any actual damage from this, the US will need to pay Canada.
Great, so now we'll have a bunch of Canucks wearing neck braces walking with limps lining up in court hoping for a windfall?
Does that apply to Okotoksians claiming psychological damage after discovering the real cause of the earth moving on Friday night?
I been watching the decent on a app on my phone, currently it shows it a altitude of 135 km. I was watching it since Friday when it was at 180 km. Was going to try and watch if when it hits 100 to 120 and see how fast it decelerated. Guess its not a real time app. (Satellite Tracker 1.5) I tried to see it last night when it was passing within view between 8:17 and 8:24 pm. But alas was not able to see it.
I'm the AC who posted above. I of course hold a version different than that of yours, but I must admit freedom to carry arms is better than nobody having weapons.
But let's have a meta discussion here: why have I got -1? It's somewhat confusing to me.
I even consider your post ontopic and not trolllish at all. So you getting "offtopic" bothers me, too.
Now, the trouble is deeper -- not only moderation is flawed, but you seem to be capable of foreseeing it is flawed and how bad it'll go; to me this signs how low we have reached. It's one things when things don't work; it's another can of worms when people learned to live with that.
BTW, this comment is ontopic, too. You moderators shove your votes where the sun doesn't shine, mmkay?
I was watching the local news. Okitoks RCMP have been flooded with calls, but there are *no* reports of any debris falling there. There was a spoof video on YouTube saying it landed there, but that video was later pulled. NASA never noticed it land there, NORAD never noticed it land there, airport radar, weather radar and local astronomers never saw it land there. I think it landed off the coast of Australia. If its any consolation, I saw a re-run of Gilligans Island where a radioactive meteor lands on the island, and the Skipper and Professor build a lightning rod and attach it to the meteor so that lightning can hit it and blow the radioactivity to a million pieces. Closest I saw of anything landing near Okitoks (at least on a TV near Okitoks).
Reports of satellite debris hitting Alberta likely a hoax:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2011/09/24/cgy-okotoks-stellite-debris.html
The scary part was 70% Off topic and 30% Interesting. That means a lot of people with mod points don't like guns. :) And there are a few people with mod points that can see past the rhetoric. (Or like guns) But do not be impressed with my predicting lunacy. Lunacy is easy to predict.
Arizona, Alabama, and Michigan are just three of the states that have had mass casualty incidents and legal concealed carry. If you're going to say concealed carry has kept you from having another mass casualty incident you'll need a bit more data. Right now it sounds more like a rock that wards off tigers.
Xavier Rabourdin for president 2012
What is interesting that for authors of the article from CSM( quote: The 6-ton UARS satellite — the biggest piece of space debris to fall from the sky since Sky Lab in 1979 ) the deorbited Mir station http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mir_space_station has never existed - because only Skylab and this satellite existed as space debris.
Paranoid? Or not paranoid enough?
For in politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. - Publius
A young document of which clutter in the gotten recently deorbited UARS satellite tv on pc acquired UARS gotten inside Canada can have recently been un controlled. Apparently, Canada the image associated with whenever (and thus where) this satellite television deorbited has returned so that you can being apparent while magnetic. Possibly, says NASA, the actual dirt clutter should never be NASA observed, early nonetheless can be thought to include gotten inside Gulf of mexico. When you are a good optimist thinking about discovering your special piece of space clutter, however, you could be keen on this particular road depending on numerous re-entry cases (hat word of advice for you to Robert Woodcock); within the Ough.S., this Nor'-west is the best best option.
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is not amused