GOCE Satellite Is Falling To Earth But Nobody Knows Where It Will Land

Virtucon writes "The Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer or GOCE Satellite is expected to fall to Earth this weekend. It weighs over a ton and unfortunately the Scientists don't exactly know where it will land. You can track it here. It should re-enter sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning. Makr Hopkins, chair of the National Society's Executive Committee said: 'The satellite is one of the few satellites in a Polar Orbit. Consequently, it could land almost anywhere.' The GOCE mission was to create an accurate gravity map of the Earth."

Comments

The tracking website is down...

[ClaraBow]

I"m sleeping in the basement tonight!

Re:The tracking website is down...

[Anonymous Coward]

And that's news? :)

Use the map

[david999]

You would think they could use the gravity map the satellite was creating to predict where the satellite would fall.....

Re:Use the map

[Brad1138]

I know not of this "Gravity" you speak of, but "Intelligent falling" is hard to predict.

Re:Legal aspect

[ColdWetDog]

Well, it all depends.

If it lands in the US, it could be considered a lawsuit.
If it lands on South Korea, it could be construed as a blow from the Sacred Unicorn of the North.
If it lands in Russia, it will end up on You Tube for weeks.

If it lands anywhere else, it will be Obama's fault.

Not the solution

[Hamsterdan]

There's probably a better way to research gravity than randomly throwing satellites at the earth...