German ROSAT to come down in October!

[JB80]

It's raining spaceships.

Well not quite but news just in of a second satellite to come down under similar circumstances as UARS.

ROSAT is a defunct German space telescope with greater possibility of causing harm or damage.

Second big satellite set to resist re-entry burn-up - space - 23 September 2011 - New Scientist

[Smeg]

They should change its name to ROAST.

2013 is going to be raining satellites due to higher solar activity

[MjrTom]

Oh cool more space agency funded fireworks

[Smeg]

Gotta love those Americans...

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We don't know where UARS will land, but it's not going to land in America.

Debris footprint will be over 500 miles long.

We will know precisely where it will hit 2 hours in advance.

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uhh wut? What about the rest of us?

uhh don't panic?

ROAST is a higher chance of hitting than UARS which is also high lol,

Higher odds than winning the lotto, now thats something.

[MjrTom]

Gotta love those Americans...

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We don't know where it will land, but it's not going to land in America.

And not only will it not likely land in the USA they want any bits back... yeah right!

[Smeg]

And not only will it not likely land in the USA they want any bits back... yeah right!

Only because they don't want us to see what really was on the satellite lol, they will just scare you with radiation or toxic fuel stories to keep you away lol

[Keiran]

They should change its name to ROAST.

2013 is going to be raining satellites due to higher solar activity

Sorry, but is actually an effect of global warming

[Smeg]

Sorry, but is actually an effect of global warming

Global warming is caused by the hot air coming from Al Gore's gob.

[Keiran]

[JB80]

Just a reminder only 5 days until this one comes down.

Same deal as the previous one really, nobody can say for sure whats going on.

DLR Portal - Re-entry - ROSAT re-entry

[LukeSkywatcher]

I better go out and buy a baseball glove, just incase.

[davo]

any more on this?

[JB80]

I'm certain I read it had a chance to come down today.

Actually I did read that.

German Satellite ROSAT To Come Down By Friday - CrazyEngineers

Maybe we should be paying a bit more attention.

[Ben Ritchie]

There's @ ROSAT_Reentry on Twitter which is quite up to date. Currently the linked webpage is saying

the current view is:

Definitely within the period 20 to 25 October 2011 GMT

Good probability within 22 to 24 October 2011 GMT

Simple "estimate" around 23 October 2011 00:00 GMT

The atmospheric density and thus the re-entry times are heavily effected by Solar Flux, which has been predicted to rise above nominal levels in the coming week. This will lead to a decay earlier than expected by possibly a day or two.