NASA stated in a press release earlier that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) will likely be falling back to Earth within the next four weeks. They also claim that there is little or no danger of it actually causing any damage, nor even hitting and injuring someone. However, in the same release they warn people who might come across any debris that looks like it could come from a spacecraft, not to touch it, and to call the local authorities immediately as it should be treated as hazardous material.

Not sure everyone will agree but to me, once the spacecraft is all confettified up, burned by the re-entry into our atmosphere, and found on the ground, the hazard is pretty much all gone…that is unless they’re not telling us everything. Is it radioactive? Is it carrying biohazardous material and if so, how did the biohazardous material survive the burn and fall?

Also, the following statement, probably meant to tranquillize the populace, is a statistical aberration which is due to be corrected once someone does, in fact get hit by a falling satellite: “If anybody does get hit by a piece, it’ll be a first. There’s never been a confirmed report of an injury from re-entering space objects, nor of significant property damage.” To which I reply, remember the Seinfeld episode The Boyfriend, (season 3, episode 17) where about 4:50 into the show, it was predicted by George “Nostradamus” Costanza that although it hadn’t happened yet, one day, a plane carrying a full sports team would crash and kill everyone on the team? Well, look what happened yesterday in Russia…