NASA has confirmed that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellites, UARS, burned up over the Pacific Ocean last night, September 24, between 03:23 and 04:09 a.m. UTC (11:23 p.m. and 12:09 Eastern US time). I have no other reliable information on it, but I expect we’ll get more updates soon. There were lots of reports last night of it falling over Canada, but those were mistakes or hoaxes. Apparently some people were fooled by meteors, Chinese lanterns, and possibly even the planet Jupiter. That’s happened before.
If I find photos or such I’ll try to post them, but I’ve heard no reports of witnesses, and I’ll be away this afternoon for my TEDxBoulder talk, so if any pictures turn up I may not be able to get to them. I imagine SpaceWeather will post any if they crop up.
Thus ends that saga. If you’re curious, you can read about the history of the UARS and what we learned from its 15 year mission to investigate our planet’s atmosphere.
Related posts:
- UARS update 5: new predicted re-entry tonight at 05:10 UTC +/- 2 hrs
- UARS update 3: new predicted re-entry tonight at 03:16 UTC +/- 5 hrs
- UARS update 2: new predicted re-entry at 00:58 UTC
- Update: satellite *might* fall on Friday at 22:00 UTC +/- 9 hours
- NASA satellite due to burn up some time in the next few days
