NASA Satellite Falls to Earth, But Debris Location Still a Mystery
No reports yet of damage or injury from UARS spacecraft, agency says.
As recently as Friday morning, U.S. officials had forecast that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, would fall out of the sky in the late afternoon or early evening Friday, eastern time.
(See "NASA Satellite Falling Faster Due to Solar Activity.")
But the satellite shifted position as it tumbled toward the planet, forcing scientists to throw out their earlier time estimates.
NASA said early Saturday that UARS fell out of orbit sometime between 11:23 p.m. and 1:09 a.m. ET.
Amateur satellite trackers in places such as San Antonio, Texas, and northern Minnesota reported catching glimpses of UARS as it made its final, doomed circles around Earth.
Though the spacecraft plummeted over the Pacific, it's still not clear exactly where debris
