Falling Satellite Has Eyes to the Sky

NASA said the defunct 6-ton satellite has fallen from the sky.

The agency posted on its official Twitter site that the spacecraft crashed through the atmosphere early Saturday morning. A location was not immediately known.

NASA also reported on Twitter that no injuries or damages were reported. Most of it was believed to have burned up.

People in San Diego who watched closely enough Friday night got a glimpse of the falling NASA satellite that wasn't quite ready to crash down to Earth.

The research satellite seemed likely to come down the hard way, and soon, via an uncontrolled re-entry. It passed over  the United States Friday night.

San Diegans were the first in the country to see the satellite. There were other reported sightings, though confirmation was difficult.

Earlier, experts at the Vandenberg Air Force Base and NASA predicted that the now defunct Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, would come down Friday. But experts said some sort of adjustment in the craft's positioning may have delayed its descent.

Most of the satellite is expected to burn up in the atmosphere, but an estimated 26 pieces, that's about 1,200 pounds, could survive and hit the earth.

Since nearly three-quarters of the world is covered with water, NASA is anticipated a splashdown rather than a landing.

NASA puts the chances at 1 in 3,200 that someone, somewhere will be hit.

The 20-year-old Upper Research Atmosphere Satellite will be the biggest NASA spacecraft to fall uncontrolled from the sky in 32 years.

In 1979 Skylab, America's first space station, fell to Earth sending pieces crashing onto Australia and into the ocean.

Three more satellites are poised to make uncontrolled entries into our atmosphere, with the next free fall expected in April of 2014.