Monday, January 28, 2008

What?

There's a spy satellite that may contain hazardous materials that has fallen out of orbit and is heading towards impact with earth. They don't know where on the planet it might fall. Even with computers. What surprises me the most is that

"Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly."

Really? Where was I? I don't remember hearing about these. I do remember when Cassini went into orbit in the late 90's and there was a big uproar because the satellite contained plutonium (for power). It had a 1 in a million chance of falling back to earth (the chance of plutonium being released during takeoff was much greater) and yet everyone was freaking out. And now we've had a bunch of satellites that have fallen back to earth, and I didn't hear anything about them. I must have missed something.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Would it be too much of a coincidence if the satellite falls on Iran?

Cleaty said...

That's hilarious! I actually laughed out loud in my office. I guess my coworkers know I'm not working now.

Anonymous said...

That's what happened in GI Jane....

Pablo said...

Oh c'mon. Surely you know that satellites need to be decomissioned all the time and the way to do it is to let them burn in the atmosphere. Whatever is left usually sinks in the Pacific Ocean. This is actually news because it might fall over the Continental US.