WASHINGTON - The biggest piece of U.S. space junk to fall in 30 years is taking aim at a vast span of territory that includes Canada, Australia and Africa as well as plenty of open ocean, NASA said Friday.
The U.S. space agency stressed there was a "very remote" risk to the public from the 26 fragments of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) expected to survive the fiery re-entry into the atmosphere.
The latest data showed the debris could re-enter Earth's atmosphere between 11 p.m. Friday and 3 a.m. Saturday ET...
The two dozen parts that survive the re-entry may weigh as little as two pounds or as much as 350 pounds, NASA said, and the debris field is expected to span 800 kilometers.
800 Kilometers is roughly 500 miles, and that is the lengthwise debris field under it's current path which you can see here: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/...
What I find interesting is the coincidence that Australia was also the lucky recipient of Skylab debris in 1979:
Stan Thornton, a residential ceramic tile layer and lifelong resident of Esperance, Western Australia, was on the roof of his home watching when America's space station Skylab fell on his hometown in July 1979.
"There was this bunch of brightly colored lights, followed by big sonic booms," said Thornton, who was 17 at the time. "The sky lit up like a big retail shop."
Shortly after Skylab fell, Thornton's mother directed him to the back yard of their home, where she thought she heard something hit the roof of their storage shed. There, Thornton recovered a sizzling, charcoal briquette-sized bit of scorched metal. He cooled it down, put it in a plastic bag and took it to the local emergency services office.
From them, he learned the San Francisco Examiner was offering $10,000 to the person delivering the first bit of Skylab to its San Francisco newsroom. Within a day, Thornton was airborne to California, where he picked up the prize and earned a spot as a human footnote in space history.
http://www.wired.com/...
of course, the chances are better than not that nobody will know when it's done falling, and it will be over an ocean.
UPDATE: Space.com says you may see it re-enter in SoCal skies:
http://www.space.com/...
But note that it cannot hit anywhere in the US now.
UPDATE: Next hour!
As of 10:30 p.m. EDT on Sept. 23, 2011, the orbit of UARS was 85 miles by 90 miles (135 km by 140 km). Re-entry is expected between 11:45 p.m. Friday, Sept. 23, and 12:45 a.m., Sept. 24, Eastern Daylight Time (3:45 a.m. to 4:45 a.m. GMT).
http://www.nasa.gov/...
Updates from NASA rss Feed
UPDATE from other blogs: Australia seems to be out of the target now as the 11:45 to 12:45 window puts its path from the Pacific to Indian Oceans. The only land it will be over in that time frame is Canada and then Africa.
See map here: http://www2.heavens-above.com/... and refresh for current position.
UPDATE 12:45 AM EST
According to the tracking and velocity estimates the satellite debris is now down. The last track had it somewhere around Lagos, Nigeria. So we'll now see if anyone saw it or heard it.