Mind that falling satellite

[CatInASuit]

Sometime between 5pm Fri and 5am Sat GMT a large satellite is going to fall to earth. NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite has come to the end of its life and is now destined to become a nice fiery mark in the sky....

...if it wasn't for that part that several chunks of it are big enough to survive re-entry.

The reckoning is that half a ton of debris will make it to the ground including fuel tanks and the structures. The good news for the Americans is that it is unlikely to be falling over the USA. Bad news is they don't know exactly where it will land.

The amusing part is that if it does land near you, you should return the bits to NASA. I bet if it lands on your house, NASA wont be paying for the repairs.

More details here

I wonder how much a titanium fuel tank is worth to a scrap dealer.

[Rube E. Tewesday]

Nasa put the odds of anyone being struck by a falling part of the spacecraft at one in 3,200. The individual risk to a particular person is much less – one in 3,200 multiplied by the billions that live under the satellite's flight path

You know, one in 3,200 is still way higher than I would have expected. I wonder how they came up with that.

[Zuul]

I'm betting it was figured off of the probability of it hitting different populated areas and then taking into account the population density in those areas. Considering all the places on the planet that are not people, those are incredibly high odds.

[Sarahfeena]

I learned to be blase about these things when no one was killed by Skylab.

[CatInASuit]

Apparently it is going to crash somewhere in the Pacific ocean and if its not cloudy, it will apparently be visible in the UK as a small glow in the sky.

So, like all the other stars then