UARS Satellite. Credit: NASA

Around and around it goes and where it lands nobody knows.  I am talking about NASA’s Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS).  The satellite was put into orbit by the space shuttle Discovery in 1991 and in this case the satellite is in a decaying orbit.

Decaying orbit, sounds bad and well, it is kind of, it means every time the object, goes around the Earth it gets a little closer.  Normally we would expect things like this to burn up in the atmosphere, but UARS weighs in at six-tons and not all of it will burn up. There are according to a UARS Casualty Risk Assessment done in 2002 a total of 26 potentially hazardous objects expected to survive with a total mass of 532 kg.

The estimated human casualty risk?  1 in 3200.  Please understand this doesn’t mean you in particular, merely the chance for someone somewhere. 

Where is it expected to come in?  Somewhere between 57 degrees North and South latitude and right now it can’t be pinned down any closer so it’s anybodies guess.  A lot of times there is fuel aboard to steer the satellite into a safe deorbit, but in this case the fuel ran out in 2005.  Now there is a LOT of land and water that could be impacted with no consequence, but hey, 1 in 3200.

So, stay tuned as they used to say.  Impact time is expected in late September to early October.  The satellite is being monitored and we should have a pretty good idea where and when re-entry will be hopefully before it happens.

Now about the riddle.  Beats the stuffing out of me.  I’ve not heard a peep from Marian and I just hope all is well.  I wasn’t ready to put one together so well there you go.