2,000-pound satellite may crash in your backyard Sunday night

[Hum]

Who do you sue if you?re hit by a satellite?

A defunct satellite from the European Space Agency the size of a Chevy Suburban is set to plunge to Earth somewhere between Sunday night and Monday afternoon -- and experts say there's no way to precisely determine where it will crash.

GOCE, or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, ran out of gas last month and has been steadily sinking towards the Earth. As the planet rotates, the satellite whizzes over nearly every point on Earth. Experts expect it to plunge harmlessly into the oceans that cover 70 percent of the surface of the planet.

?Basically, governments are responsible for their own spacecraft,? explained Marcia S. Smith, president of the Space and Technology Policy Group in Arlington, Va. ?[if] you could prove a piece of GOCE hit your Honda, you could go to your government to make a claim,? she told FoxNews.com.

400 pounds of smoking metal spread over a "sizeable swath" is nothing to sniff at. But should one of those fragments land on U.S. soil, you?re fully covered, according to the United Nations. The U.N.?s Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects was created in September of 1972, and has been ratified by 88 countries and signed by 22 nations as of January 1, 2013.

?A launching State shall be absolutely liable to pay compensation for damage caused by its space object on the surface of the Earth or to aircraft in flight,? reads the policy. And the GOCE satellite was launched from Russia, so that country would be responsible, said Mark Hopkins chairman of the executive committee of the National Space Society.

While space objects reenter the atmosphere all the time, few pieces survive the fiery trip and many of those end up in the ocean, Smith said. But sometimes, they do. Russia's Cosmos 954 satellite crashed in Canada in 1978, with a radioactive energy source. That sounds more alarming than it actually was; the element was ?vanishingly small? when it hit ground, Hopkins said. But Canada did try to get money back from the Russians -- and they did pay up, he said.

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[LittleNeutrino Veteran]

too bad it isnt a controlled entry, i remember last time there was one Taco bell put a floating target in the ocean and said if it got hit they would give away free Tacos

[badb0y]

Any chance for it to fall here: 

 

[123456789A]

If it lands at my place, I'm selling it on eBay.

[Atomic Wanderer Chicken]

This for some reason, reminded me the scene where the Sirius star light falls in the Truman Show (one of my most favorite movies of all time)

"An airplane in trouble began shedding parts as it flew over sea haven moments ago"

[yowanvista]

Most of the 1100kg structure will already have burned up in the upper atmosphere, the remaining 200kg will likely fall as harmless fragments so there's not real danger.

[McKay]

Remember when the Australian Government tried to fine NASA for littering when a US Satellite crashed in the outback?

[Hum]

I hope it doesn't hit a UFO :alien:

[DocM]

The latest prediction is reentry at 23:33 GMT. The most likely drop zone is Eastern China, but they're giving a plus/minus window of four hours.

[webeagle12]

Any chance for it to fall here: 

 

 We are not that lucky

[Skyfrog]

Real time tracking: http://www.satview.org/?sat_id=34602U

 

Edit: Maybe not, I've noticed all the tracking sites are showing different things. Unless it is over Australia, South America and the North Pole all at the same time I'd say they're wrong. They aren't actually tracking it in real time though, they just take the latest data and then try and predict where it's going to be.

[DocM]

Now East of Hudson Bay heading North over the pole.

Reentry: 11 Nov 2013

Time: 03h59 UTC +/-8 hs

Altitude: 142.32 Km

If it misses China then Indonesia/Malaysia and the Western tip of Australia are up to bat ;)

[123456789A]

I think it'll land in the sea.

[Hum]

The latest prediction is reentry at 23:33 GMT. The most likely drop zone is Eastern China, but they're giving a plus/minus window of four hours.

There goes the latest shipment of Wal-mart crap. ;)

[DocM]

ESA tracker

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Track_ESA_missions/index.html

[The Evil Overlord]

They must have some idea where it's going to land, even MiR was sort of predictble

 

edit

 

(I thought they could at least 'guess' based on it's current trajectory)

[DocM]

Nope - it's very light and low enough now that predictions are pretty useless.

[DocM]

It's dead, Jim....

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/09/tech/satellite-falling/index.html?c=homepage-t

[Hum]

Officials at the European Space Agency said Monday that a 2,000-pound satellite that had been steadily sinking toward Earth after it ran out of fuel last month re-entered the atmosphere Sunday, and disintegrated.

 

In a status report posted on the European Space Agency's website, scientists said the GOCE, or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, re-entered Earth's atmosphere at 1:00 a.m. Central European Time Monday (7 p.m. Eastern Time Sunday) on a descending orbit pass that extended across Siberia, the western Pacific Ocean, the eastern Indian Ocean and Antarctica.

 

"As expected, the satellite disintegrated in the high atmosphere and no damage to property has been reported," the report said. 

 

The agency earlier estimated on its website that about 25 percent of the spacecraft survived re-entry and has fallen into the ocean.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/11/11/most-out-fuel-satellite-likely-incinerated-as-it-entered-atmosphere-officials/?intcmp=latestnews

[Decebalvs Rex]

It will crash in North Korea and they will steal tech !!!