NASA Satellite Will Soon Land on Earth
Cape Canaveral, Fla. — An old NASA research spacecraft weighing 6 ton was targeted to crash to earth’s atmosphere either by Friday night or early Saturday morning. NASA said the old spacecraft most likely will fall in the ocean but there is still a possibility of a landfall putting Africa, Canada and Australia in the potential crosshairs although the satellite will be burn up during its entry in the earth’s atmosphere.
The United States even was not entirely singled out. Due to the uncertainty where the satellite will fall, the United States should also prepare. Jonathan McDowell of the Astrophysics Dept. at Harvard Smithsonian Center said the spacecraft does not want to fall. He also added that the delay in its actual fall signifies that predictions are indeed unreliable at times. The best prediction is that it will fall in the ocean likely because there’s more ocean than land.
Mark Matney, NASA orbital debris scientist, said that for the last 24 hours, there has already changes in the old spacecraft and there has something already happened. NASA scientists have observed an increased solar activity causing earth’s atmosphere to expand which might cause the old spacecraft to fall faster. But the same scientists said the sun could no longer affect the satellite’s descend rate. NASA announced that any risk to public safety is very unlikely and is very remote.