Where do dead satellites go? Some of them drift away in space but most fall down to earth. In the next few days, a schoolbus-sized satellite will fall back to earth. NASA officials don’t know exactly where it will fall until about two hours before it enters the Earth’s atmosphere. Usually, satellites and payload modules disintegrate into smaller pieces as they enter the atmosphere, and the danger to people is not as high as one might imagine. NASA spokespersons added that there is a 1-in-3,200 chance that a person somewhere on Earth could be hit by falling satellite debris. Here’s a look at space debris found on earth.
The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, shown in this conceptual image, was launched in 1991 by space shuttle Discovery. The 35-foot-long, 15-foot-diameter UARS was decommissioned on December 14, 2005. The nearly 12,500-pound (5,668-kilogram) satellite will fall over a stretch of land more than 500 miles (804 kilometers) long somewhere between northern Canada and southern South America, said NASA officials.
NASA
NASA expects the UARS to re-enter Earth's atmosphere in late September or early October but does not have a clear idea of where the satellite will fall until two hours before it enters the Earth’s atmosphere.
A factoid showing details of NASA’s UARS satellite. Michael Duncan, deputy chief of the US Strategic Command's space situational awareness division, told reporters that even two hours before re-entry, the military will only be able to pinpoint the area of impact to within about 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers).
NASA
The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite should be crashing into the earth's surface sometime this month
NASA
Satellites are not the only space debris to return home. This 30 kg titanium pressurant tank survived the reentry of the Delta 2 second stage on 22 January 1997 also, but was found farther downrange near Seguin, Texas.
On January 21, 2001, a Delta 2 third stage, known as a PAM-D (Payload Assist Module - Delta), reentered the atmosphere over the Arab Gulf. The titanium motor casing of the PAM-D, weighing about 70 kg, landed in Saudi Arabia about 240 km from the capital Riyadh.
The main propellant tank of the second stage of a Delta 2 launch vehicle, which landed near Georgetown, Texas in 1997, weighs 250 kg tank is primarily a stainless steel structure and survived reentry relatively intact.
This 4-feet inch diameter sphere found in Lake Nacogdoches, Texas belonged to space shuttle Columbia. Low water levels at the lake during the drought have led to recovery of a container-like object presumably from the ill-fated space shuttle, which broke apart and burned in February 2003, scattering remnants over East Texas.
(AP Photo/Nacogdoches Police Department)
Debris from Kosmos 954, a Soviet Radar Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite (RORSAT) with an onboard nuclear reactor. Launched in 1977, it was designed to track nuclear submarines. For a renewed recovery effort after the first debris was found, the Canadian government billed the Soviet Union $6,041,174.70 for actual expenses and additional compensation for future unpredicted expenses. The USSR paid up Canadian $3 million.
In this video-grab image, an object is seen falling from Space Shuttle Columbia during liftoff on January 16, 2003. The area from which the object fell is highlighted in the red circle near the shuttle's main engines.
(Photo by NASA-TV/Getty Images)
Launched in 1973, Skylab was the world’s first successful space station. The cylinder-shaped station was 118 feet tall, weighed 77 tons, and carried an assortment of scientific equipment. In 1979, after breaking up in the atmosphere, Skylab crashed down in Australia and into the Indian Ocean.
