The Sky Is Falling, The Sky Is Falling—U.S. Spy Sat To Splat

There has been plenty of coverage this past weekend regarding the U.S. spy satellite tumbling to Earth due to an engine failure... the satellite is expected to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime late next month or early in March. The exact location where the satellite remnants will land is not yet know. Coverage of this non-dangerous land fall could be found in almost every noteworthy news publication. Interfax-AVN reports Roskosmos (the Russian Federal Space Agency) and the Russian Space Forces had no comment regarding the report from the United States, which was released last Saturday. However, Sergei Puzanov, Russian Mission Control's NASA representative, made the positive comment to Interfax-AVN, "Some parts of the satellite will be burnt in dense atmosphere, and only small parts, for example the engine unit, could fall on the Earth. This is not the case when rush should be kicked up."

The gloom and doom countenance of BBC News finds them reporting the satellite failure from sources on "condition of anonymity"... apparently, those nebulous saucies... er, sources... stated the spy satellite lost power and is unable to be controlled. To be certain, BBC News' report indicated the satellite may contain hazardous materials and scientists are not sure where the spacecraft will land.

WARNING, WILL ROBINSON, WARNING! According to Gordon Johndroe, of the U.S. National Security Council (NSC), in a statement to Al Jazeera, "Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation. Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly. We are looking at potential options to mitigate any possible damage this satellite may cause." Now, why any senior official with the U.S. government would tell Al Jazerra anything is beyond the scope of believability. Wonder if such might occur if "blue ice" descended from a U.S. flag aircraft flying the heavens—just picture an official with the FAA notifying Al Jazerra of such an incident... heck, there's probably more of a caustic and detrimental effect from blue ice than anything aboard this U.S. satellite.

Australia's The Sydney Morning Herald online news service and other news entities used the Los Angeles Times and Associated Press agencies as their sources. Both agencies reported all of the obligatory information, with additional details added. Once again referring to Mr. Johndroe of the NSC, he indicated the fact the satellite could not be maneuvered and he declined whether to state "it would be possible to shoot it down before it plummeted through the Earth's atmosphere." Plus, another name is added to the talking head plethora, that of Lieutenant-Colonel Karen Finn of the Air Force who believed the satellite could hit the Earth soon, but added more analysis would be needed to determine exactly where and when. GlobalSecurity.org's Director of Defence Research Group mixed in two of the missing elements... the satellite's size (9.072 tons and the size of a small bus) and that the satellite might contain beryllium as far as the hazardous material is concerned. Ahhh, then we have National Security Archive Senior Fellow Jeffrey Richelson weighing in with this was more than likely a photoreconnaissance satellite, with the batteries used in solar power systems usually considered hazardous materials for "disposal purposes." The Los Angeles Times article also adds in a wee bit of history to close their story at their website.

Rafe Telsh at online site Blend Technology initiates their article with "Paranoid sky watchers: look out!" and then delves into the lost control of the satellite and the author also figured out there was no option of shooting debris out of the sky. And, of course, whether serious or with tongue in cheek, Telsh' article concludes with, "...I can’t help but be concerned over the possible side effects. Don’t half of the zombie movies out there begin with some satellite re-entering the planet’s atmosphere with some dangerous byproduct that results in the dead awakening? Watch the skies for falling satellites, but perhaps we should also prepare for an onslaught of zombies as well."

The green-ish EARTHtimes.org continues the parade with authorities indicating the suspect "lunging device" is an experimental imagery satellite built by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenburg AFB in December of 2006 aboard a Delta II rocket—no, wait a second, this is sourced from that font of non-skewed news, The New York Times! Thankfully the dismal scenario ends with the proviso that debris, if any survives the fiery descent, typically lands in remote areas and causes little or no harm. Well, thank heavens for that!

METRO.co.uk's report possessed a somewhat light-hearted approach and even brought Bruce Willis into the picture to blow the satellite up prior to it's Earth assault. They included comments such as, "Plans to flee underground may be premature as the chances of it hitting a major city are slim – more than 70 per cent of Earth's surface is covered by oceans." + "The chances of a person getting hit and injured by such an object is about one in a trillion." + "More than 100 tonnes of man-made objects re-enter in an uncontrolled fashion each year." + In April, 2005, at least 13 nuclear reactor fuel cores and 32 nuclear reactors were in Earth orbit." Time for some comedy relief away from all of the negativity out there... consider the headline and first sentence in the online engadget posting: "Out of control satellite "weeks" away from slamming into Earth. Good news, everyone!" Their article's picture reveals the menace from the heavens with the obligatory image inclusion of a Ridley Scott alien...

I guess the best thing to do is to read all and inwardly digest—with stomach acid pills at the ready!