Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Goober5000 on September 24, 2011, 02:49:01 am
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Sorry, there have been so many misleading or provocative thread titles lately that I thought I'd join in.
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/uars/status.html
RE-ENTRY CONFIRMED. The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, launched from the shuttle Discovery in 1991 to begin a new era of studying the Earth's environment from space, has fallen from orbit.
But NASA still doesn't know exactly when or where the re-entry happened.
"NASA's decommissioned Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. EDT Sept. 24. The satellite was passing eastward over Canada and Africa as well as vast portions of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans during that period. The precise re-entry time and location are not yet known with certainty," the space agency says.
Natural processes caused the large spacecraft's orbital altitude to gradually lower over time, finally tumbling into the atmosphere today where it burned up. It had spent 7,316 days in space.
NASA expected 26 fragments of the satellite would survive the superhot re-entry and hit the ground, such as titanium fuel tanks, antenna structures and beryllium brackets. The combined mass of the pieces was predicted to be 1,173 pounds (532 kg).
Authorities urge anyone finding the satellite pieces to avoid touching the objects and contact local officials.
NASA says it continues to wait for final confirmation of re-entry. "If debris fell on land (and that's still a BIG if), Canada is most likely area," the space agency just said.
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nuke them moose lovin' bastards back to the stone age!
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It's about time we did something like this. America Junior's had it easy for too long.
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nuke them moose lovin' bastards back to the stone age!
Noooo, if it fell on BATUS and has semi-radiocative elements aboard, it'll ruin my plans for a paid holiday educating locals and skiing :C
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Why would I contact the local officials anyways? I've always wanted space junk as a decorative item in my igloo
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I can confirm that my town is still intact, so it didn't land in this part of Canada (this part being about 30 square kilometers roughly 10 km from south Edmonton) :P
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No word of any fragments hitting near Ottawa.
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I actually heard this on the radio this morning, some farmer claimed that a piece fell on his farm near Calgary. Don't quote me on this though, I was half asleep trying to drag my carcass out of bed and get to my Math lecture, and this farmer might be full of it anyways.
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/story/2011/09/24/cgy-okotoks-stellite-debris.html
Turns out it was hoax, but i was defs still way asleep cus it wasn't a farmer :P
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NASA expected 26 fragments of the satellite would survive the superhot re-entry and hit the ground, such as titanium fuel tanks, antenna structures and beryllium brackets.
Am I the only one who immediately thought of Slag the dinobot who says "Beryllium Bologna" during the first Transformers movie?