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A 2,000-pound satellite may crash in your backyard Sunday night

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But Canada did try to get money back from the Russians -- and they did pay up, he said. “It was a lot less than they wanted,” he told FoxNews.com.
Indeed, the Canadian government asked for $6 million to cover cleanup and "future unpredicted expenses,"
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C'mon satellite! Pizza wants a new boat! At just the right angle, a chunk could damage my roof AND boat. C'mon satellite, Pizza wants a new roof!
 
I hope it hits the neighbor's house, behind mine. They're the a**holes who, once upon a time, thought it was a great idea to plant "ornamental" bamboo!! 😡
 
So it's orbit was only 160 miles above and they knew it would eventually run out of propellant needed to maintain that altitude, why not save a little propellant and design a retro-rocket system so one could then slow it's decent quickly and get a trajectory that would it fall into an ocean?, idiots...
 
BUTCH1 said:
So it's orbit was only 160 miles above and they knew it would eventually run out of propellant needed to maintain that altitude, why not save a little propellant and design a retro-rocket system so one could then slow it's decent quickly and get a trajectory that would it fall into an ocean?, idiots...
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Because it probably would cost more money to implement something like that, than it would to fight someone in court *if* it hits a house or something on the way down.
 
I always figured these things stayed in orbit on their own, I guess you have to be WAY farther out for that like the at the same level as the moon?

Imagine being able to witness that thing come crashing down though, that would be quite the sight.
 
Virtually none of the planet is inhabited by a person at any given time or even a structure. The chances of it hitting either are minute in the extreme.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I always figured these things stayed in orbit on their own, I guess you have to be WAY farther out for that like the at the same level as the moon?

Imagine being able to witness that thing come crashing down though, that would be quite the sight.
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No, the moon is 225,000 miles away, a "geostationary" orbit is roughly 22,000 miles, at this altitude you don't need thrust to maintain altitude although thrusters are still needed to keep a satellite in a fixed position as solar winds and other factors will try and move it around. A 160 mile orbit is considered very low and there will be atmospheric drag on the spacecraft, occasional thrust applications are necessary to prevent the craft's from orbit from decaying quickly.
 
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