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Satellite falls out of orbit
January 26, 2008Love Your Health Money Family & Relationship
Satellite falls out of orbit after losing the the power. A defunct large U.S. spy satellite may head toward Earth and could hit the Earth in late February or March. The satellite used to be controlled by US government but no longer can be controlled, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret. It could contain hazardous materials.
In history, NASA spacecraft Skylab was the largest uncontrolled re-entry. It was a 78-ton abandoned space station that fell from orbit in 1979. Its debris dropped harmlessly into the Indian Ocean and across a remote section of western Australia.
In 2000, NASA engineers successfully directed a safe de-orbit of the 17-ton Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, using rockets aboard the satellite to bring it down in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.
In 2002, officials believe debris from a 7,000-pound science satellite smacked into the Earth’s atmosphere and rained down over the Persian Gulf, a few thousand miles from where they first predicted it would plummet.
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