spacetoday.net: space news from around the webin association with SpaceNews


UARS expected to reenter late this week
Posted: Tue, Sep 20, 2011, 8:51 AM ET (1251 GMT)
UARS illustration (NASA) NASA is predicting that a 20-year-old satellite will reenter the Earth's atmosphere on Friday, posing a very small but non-zero risk to the public. The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), launched by the space shuttle in 1991, is in a decaying orbit as atmospheric drag slows down the spacecraft and lowers its orbit at an accelerating rate. As of late Monday NASA predicted the spacecraft would reenter the atmosphere on Friday, give or take a day. The satellite's orbital inclination of 57 degrees means it passes over most populated regions of the Earth. NASA expects that 26 pieces of the satellite, with a combined mass of 532 kilograms, will survive reentry and reach the surface. NASA has estimated that there is a 1-in-3,200 chance that debris from the satellite would injure anyone, with the most likely outcome that the debris falls in the ocean.
<<previous article   next article>>
news in brief
Electron launches Capella Space satellites
Posted: Wed, Mar 22 9:25 PM ET (0125 GMT)

China launches geostationary imaging satellites
Posted: Wed, Mar 22 9:21 PM ET (0121 GMT)

China launches experimental satellite
Posted: Wed, Mar 22 9:20 PM ET (0120 GMT)

news links
Thursday, March 23
Virgin Orbit to Resume Operations as Funding Search Continues
Wall Street Journal — 7:18 am ET (1118 GMT)


about spacetoday.net   ·   info@spacetoday.net   ·   mailing list