UARS

The Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite went up in 1991 to study...um...well you can probably guess.

 

The 6 1/2 ton unit, which housed 10 scientific instruments, was in service until 2005 and has basically spent its retirement banging around up there in low Earth orbit, goofing off.

 

Well, it's time for the last phase of the mission. UARS is headed back down sometime in the next month. Most of it is going to burn up in the atmosphere that it once studied, some pieces will probably survive and nobody knows where they'll land. This is, as most space junk re-entries are, an uncontrolled event.

 

Before you get all Chicken Little, remember that nobody has ever been hurt by space junk in 60 years and your odds are very small that part of UARS will hit your Hummer or your prize-winning rose bush.