Duck! Falling Satellite Arrives on Sunday

reply to post by intrptr


Thanks intrptr - I didn't know that. Seems from the article referenced by another poster above they are talking about it really "going to hell" re: uncontrolled descent at an altitude of 80 miles.

Maybe that's the magic number...at least for this beastie. That number may vary based on the size/shape/weight of the particular object in question though.

So much I don't know about this stuff and I thought I was a little more knowledgeable than the average bear too...

reply to post by Maluhia


Troll station in Antarctica. I don't what ya'll believe, I don't like it.

So has anyone seen it yet? Pics or Youtube vids yet? Next stop for me is youtube

Stari

Re-entry of Europe's GOCE satellite is imminent

European officials said Sunday the 2,200-pound fuel-depleted GOCE satellite was expected to re-enter the atmosphere Sunday evening between 2250 GMT and 0050 GMT (5:50-7:50 p.m. EST), putting the most probable re-entry zones over the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans, or over Earth's polar regions.

GOCE will also pass over eastern Russia, northeast China, the Korean peninsula, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and will skirt the western coast of Australia on a north-to-south trajectory in the middle of the re-entry period.

A lot of good info here.

www.spaceflightnow.com...

Stari
So has anyone seen it yet? Pics or Youtube vids yet? Next stop for me is youtube

Stari

Here a possibility



www.facebook.com...

Some on this Site are saying heads up in western and central US.

Maybe someone will catch some footage.

according to this site it appears to be going wayyy off track????

satlink

S&F

Tis always fun to see these so gradually descend in their wave pattern over US terrain

Cant tell where its over now.. Tajikistan?

Where are you guys predicting it will make LF?

reply to post by gardener

Tough to predict. It doesn't seem to want to come back to Earth - it's just bouncing up and down a few kilometers without reentering the atmosphere.

How come the trajectory (red line its currently in) ends in..

Los Angeles area? The red line seems to stop there.

Reports are coming out that they lost track of it a few hours ago and believe it has disintegrated and any debris likely landed in ocean.

The SAT-Flare website is programmed to continue the simulated path "for a few hours after the decay".

Ground tracking stations' last contact with Europe's Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, or GOCE, was as it passed 121 kilometres above Antarctica, Heiner Klinkrad, head of the European Space Agency's space debris office, wrote in a status report posted on the European Space Agency's website.

"By the time you read this, the spacecraft's amazing flight will, most likely, have come to an end," space agency spokesman Daniel Scuka wrote in an update posted around 6:45 p.m.

There was no immediate word on where and when any debris may have landed.

www.cbc.ca...

Gawd.... it passes over the Philippines..

Imagine going through Yolanda and then being hit by GOCE!

Satflare gone bonkers, check elevation reported
www.satflare.com...


www.facebook.com...

Elevation is at -32 degree it in the ground now LOL

Trillium
Satflare gone bonkers, check elevation reported
www.satflare.com...


www.facebook.com...

Elevation is at -32 degree it in the ground now LOL

altitude and elevation aren't the same thing, you know.
really.

reply to post by Maluhia

In other words the European Space Agency doesn't have a clue.

SatView still seems to be saying its altitude has dropped now, but only down to its normal perigee altitude (130km)

They now continued the red line path across and over Cali/North America.

Looks like its gonna keep going up and down still high up, per satview

Per other accounts, it already broke up?

Confused!

reply to post by CuriousIslander


Lol. Basically, yes. So I guess unless and until someone finds, or gets hit with, a piece of debris, we'll probably never know.

reply to post by Maluhia


I just hope no one gets hurt. Or killed.

I also hope there was nothing radioactive added to the Earth's environment. We have all we need - and then some.

reply to post by Riffrafter

Thanks for that. 80 miles seems about right. I am not an expert either. Too bad Phage didn't land on this and set us all straight.

Uncontrolled Orbital decay of satellites like GOCE are difficult to track because they can't de-orbit it on command. If the fuel is all burned up they just have to wait. Since the orbital trajectory is man made its going to be a slow decay until its finally caught and makes the plunge. Whereas meteors move much faster and can come in suddenly from any angle.

That web sight says there will be 3 more reentries of space junk within a month. One is three days from now, @ the 14th. Right side of page…

www.satview.org...

This one says GOCE is down. Scroll down…

www.satflare.com...

I'll make sure to walk around with an umbrella tonight if it hasn't landed yet. If I learned anything from cartoons is that umbrellas can protect you from falling pianos and a satellite might be about the same size once it gets near the surface of earth