Incoming Bus-Sized Satellite Will Track Over Western US Several Times On Final Day
MAP 1 - One of the predicted UARS satellite tracks over western US on Friday (4:11 AM PDT)
(All MAPS thanks to www.n2yo.com & Google Maps)
A bus-sized satellite will come down somewhere in the world in two days and its orbit will track near or over the United States several times on its final day. Predicted tracks puts it over the western United States four times on Friday. NASA states that some of the satellite will likely survive reentry and impact on land or ocean; however, there is only a 1 in 3200 chance that anyone will be hit by the debris.
The latest report from NASA shows the satellite is in a 120 by 130 mile orbit. When launched almost exactly 20 years ago, the 6.5 ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) was parked in an of orbit approximate 575 miles after being deployed by the Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-48 mission. In December of 2005, the UARS satellite was decommission and moved into a lower 'disposal' orbit that moved up the reentry by about 20 years..
UARS slow six year death had one notable moment when, on October 26, 2010 the International Space Station (ISS) had to make an avoidance maneuver because of a possible conflict with it.
The predicted passes over the western United States (late Thursday through early Saturday) are as follows (all estimated start times are PDT):
- Thursday at 8:29 PM approaching southern California tracking northeast (see MAP 2)
- Thursday at 10:01 PM approaching the US/Canada border tracking northeast (see MAP 3)
- Friday at 2:40 AM approaching Montana tracking southeast (MAP 4)
- Friday at 4:11 AM approaching Oregon tracking southeast (See MAP 1 above)
- Friday at 8:01 PM approaching southern California tracking northeast (MAP 5)
- Friday at 9:33 PM approaching the US/Canada border tracking northeast (MAP 6)
- Saturday at 2:12 AM approaching Montana tracking southeast (MAP 7)
- Saturday at 3:42 AM approaching Oregon tracking southeast (MAP 8)
See below for additional satellite tracking maps (All MAPS thanks to www.n2yo.com and Google Maps):
MAP 2 - Thursday starting at 8:29 PM PDT (est.)
MAP 3 - Thursday starting at 10:01 PM PDT (est.)
MAP 4 - Friday starting at 2:40 AM PDT (est.)
MAP 5 - Friday starting at 8:01 PM PDT (est.)
MAP 6 - Friday starting at 9:33 PM PDT (est.)
MAP 7- Saturday starting at 2:12 AM PDT (est.)
MAP 8 - Saturday starting at 3:42 AM PDT (est.)
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