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Nasa's Uars Satellite Falls Off West Coast Of Us by callydon(m): 8:22am On Sep 26, 2011
Nasa says its six-tonne
UARS satellite plunged to
Earth over the Pacific
Ocean, off the US west
coast.
It appears likely the
decommissioned craft came
down between 03:23 and
05:09 GMT - with a best
estimate of 04:16.
If correct, this means any
debris that survived to the
surface probably went into
water and not on land.
The Upper Atmosphere
Research Satellite (UARS)
is the largest American
space agency satellite to
return uncontrolled into the
atmosphere in about 30
years.
The fall to Earth was
monitored by the Joint
Space Operations Center
(JSPOC) at Vandenberg Air
Force Base in California. Its
best estimate for the timing
of the re-entry would have
seen UARS come in at a
point well out into the North
Pacific.
However, if UARS re-entered
many minutes after 04:16, it
is possible debris could have
reached the American
landmass.
There were some
unconfirmed reports of
glowing wreckage moving
across the sky in western
Canada, but Nasa said it had
yet to receive credible
evidence that this was so,
less still that any debris
items had been found.
"I've got no reports that I've
seen that talk about people
who think they might have
recovered debris," Nick
Johnson, Nasa's chief
scientist for orbital debris
at the Johnson Space Center
in Houston, told reporters
during a media
teleconference.
"Obviously, we're going to
continue to keep our eyes
and ears open, and if we
receive any reports like that
we'll try to go verify."
Most of the 20-year-old
satellite should simply have
burnt up on re-entry into the
Earth's atmosphere, but
modelling work indicated
perhaps 500kg could have
survived to the surface.
Calculations estimated this
material would have been
scattered over an 800km
path. Nonetheless, with more
than 70% of the Earth's
surface covered by water,
many experts had offered
the view in recent weeks
that an ocean grave was
going to be the most
probable outcome for UARS.

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