NASA: 'Something has happened' to falling satellite
"It just doesn't want to come down," said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
The old research spacecraft was targeted to crash through the atmosphere sometime Friday night or early Saturday morning, putting the U.S. back in the potential crosshairs, although most of the satellite should burn up during re-entry.The Aerospace Corp., based in California, is estimating the strike sometime between about 6 p.m. and 4 a.m. EDT, which would make a huge difference in where the debris might wind up. Those late-night, early-morning passes show the satellite flying over parts of the United States. Any surviving wreckage is expected to be limited to a 500-mile swath.
NASA satellite meets its fiery doom over Pacific Ocean Six-ton UARS spacecraft is gone; experts can't pinpoint exact location
The space agency said the decommissioned spacecraft fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. ET Friday and 1:09 a.m. ET Saturday. NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs said the Joint Space Operations Center, headquartered at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base, reported that the satellite entered the atmosphere over the Pacific. "Precise time and locale aren't yet known," he added in a Twitter update.