Categories: Science

NASA releases UARS re-entry location, believes debris landed in Pacific

NASA and the U.S. Joint Space Operations Center (USSTRATCOM) have revealed the nominal location where large parts of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) crashed landed in the Pacific Ocean and not Canada.

Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite via Wikiedpa/NASA

After spending most of yesterday tracking the satellite’s location in realtime (view our report here) the space agency revealed that the satellite had crashed on Canadian Soil (view our report here).  This was a reversal of the agency’s prediction that the satellite would not make landfall over North America.

However, speaking on a live teleconference NASA said it believes UARS ploughed through the atmosphere 04:16 GMT at 31° North and 219° East (September 24) and this would suggest that it strew debris across the Pacific Ocean not over Canada or USA.


View Larger Map

DoDʼs Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, CA, has assessed that NASAʼs Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite reentered the atmosphere sometime between 0323 and 0509 GMT on 24 September. During this period the satellite passed over Canada, the African continent, and the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The mid-point of that groundtrack and a possible reentry location is 31 N latitude and 219 E longitude (green circle marker on the above map). Credit NASA

This re-entry location would place the satellite 1860 km from San Francisco and 1969 km from Sacramento. However NASA says that “we may never know” exactly where UARS came down.  The agency said that it will only be able to accurately know the re-entry location from eye-witnesses.

NASA downplayed the risk from the satellite by saying that every day one satellite makes re-entry into the atmosphere for the past 50 years.

Tweeting this morning NASA was keen to point out that any debris from the satellite, regardless of where it landed, is the property of the United States.

https://twitter.com/NASA/status/117477900810334209″ data-datetime=”2011-09-24T05:58:08+00:00

NASA says that if the public comes across what they believe is debris that they should call the emergency services.

Ajit Jain

Ajit Jain is marketing and sales head at Octal Info Solution, a leading iPhone app development company and offering platform to hire Android app developers for your own app development project. He is available to connect on Google Plus, Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Recent Posts

10 Independent Writers Leading the Design Conversation in 2025

While major design houses and celebrities often steal the spotlight, it’s the independent voices behind…

3 days ago

Building trust across clouds: Expert insight on how AI cloud-native MFT platforms are empowering businesses (Brains Byte Back Podcast)

For modern, data-driven organizations, managing data effectively is an ongoing challenge.  (more…)

4 days ago

Securing the future of healthy code: “Make it simple, scalable & a no-brainer for teams of all sizes”

A dream is often born when things get tough and tedious. While DevSecOps is a…

4 days ago

G20 South Africa commits to advancing digital public infrastructure globally

DPI involves giving everybody electricity & internet, making them sign up for digital ID, and…

5 days ago

Nisum, Applied AI Consulting partner-up to turn the promise of AI into tangible results

Across industries, AI has been promised as the magic bullet, poised to solve different business…

6 days ago

WEF blog calls for an ‘International Cybercrime Coordination Authority’ to impose collective penalties on uncooperative nations

How long until online misinformation and disinformation are considered cybercrimes? perspective The World Economic Forum…

6 days ago