Video of Crashing Satellite Emerge, NASA Mum on Crash Site (VIDEO)
A new video of the crashing NASA satellite UARS has emerged even as the U.S. space agency has yet to disclose the crash site on fears of a mad scramble for parts that survived the heat and impact of its fall from orbit on Friday.
CNET.com is reporting that a family in the Calgary suburb of Okotoks in, Alberta province is claiming of catching on video the falling Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) early Saturday morning. In their footage, there is a dim spot of light in a dark sky.
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There is no confirmation yet if the light shown on the video is really the UARS. It is being doubted because it is not consistent with early reports that the satellite fell in the Pacific Ocean.
Eight to nine days before its re-entry, French astrophotographer Thierry Legault caught the UARS as a glowing blob of light that faded after a few seconds. He took the video using a Celestron EdgeHD 14in Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope in Dunkerque, France on Sept. 15.
Legault's video can be seen here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2040538/Nasa-say-Upper-Atmospheric-Research-Satellite-UARS-hit-US.html or here http://www.newschannel9.com/articles/satellite-1005104-nasa-fell.html.
Meanwhile, NASA is not disclosing the crash site despite major public interest, according to Yahoo! News. The agency wants to avoid a mad dash to retrieve part of the satellite. It had warned earlier that no one should touch any part of the satellite that can be found.
NASA reported that the 20-year-old UARS fell back to Earth between 11:23 p.m. EDT Friday, Sept. 23 and 1:09 a.m. Sept. 24. The U.S. Air Force's Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California and NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston tracked the fall.
"During the re-entry period, the satellite passed from the east coast of Africa over the Indian Ocean, then the Pacific Ocean, then across northern Canada, then across the northern Atlantic Ocean, to a point over West Africa. The vast majority of the orbital transit was over water, with some flight over northern Canada and West Africa," according to NASA.com.
"Data indicates the satellite likely broke apart and landed in the Pacific Ocean far off the U.S. coast. Twenty-six satellite components, weighing a total of about 1,200 pounds, could have survived the fiery re-entry and reach the surface of Earth."
The landing zone is believed to be between 57 degrees north latitude and 57 degrees south latitude with the debris footprint estimated to be about 500 miles long.