Satellite Plunges to Earth in Remote South Pacific

When an out of control satellite is plummeting to Earth a few minutes makes a big difference. In the case of the decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite arriving a few minutes ahead of schedule meant that the two dozen or so pieces that survived re-entry hit a remote part of the South Pacific, near the Christmas Islands, half way between Australia and Hawaii. If the satellite had traveled through the atmosphere a few minutes later and debris could have hit a west coast U.S. city like Seattle.

The much anticipated return of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite ended early Saturday morning as it fell from low-Earth orbit, penetrated the atmosphere and spread a 500-mile debris field of burnt metal. Early reports suggested that pieces of the 6.5-ton satellite landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean but NASA wasn’t saying where, until Tuesday.

Concerns that it may have hit land had people staring skyward last Friday night, trying to catch a glimpse. By looking up in the sky amateur astronomers and average citizens caught a few meteors and interesting streaks of light.

A man in Carlsbad, New Mexico says it sounded like a bomb going off at his neighbor’s house. When he went outside to look he found searing hot soot covered pieces of metal which he describes as large ball bearings. A three-inch hole in a tin roof was among the evidence that a high-velocity object left as it fell from the sky. But the timing doesn’t line up with the return of the UARS satellite, though local authorities have filed a report with NASA.

NASA won’t say how it figured out the location of the satellite but some speculate that it used missile tracking systems and other military tools to track and locate the spent satellite.

NASA did say that it determined the exact time the satellite entered Earth’s atmosphere because sensors in the U.S. based satellite surveillance network no longer picked up the satellite signal, indicating it was no longer in space.

NASA is still looking for reports of debris sightings from the small islands near the crash zone and also any reports form airplanes or boats in the area. Since the landing site is so remote they believe that it is likely no one actually saw any pieces of the satellite crash into the ocean, which will then make any efforts to recover the space junk more difficult.

If you want to follow the path of the International Space Station or specific satellites still in orbit go to Real Time Satellite Tracking.