Watch discarded NASA tank zip across your night sky

William Atkins
Wednesday, 23 July 2008 18:15

Science - Space

Over this one-year period, while the EAS has been circling on its own about the Earth, its orbit has been steadily decaying. It is now low enough in its orbit to be easily seen from Earth.

For instance, from my position on Earth in central Illinois (Midwestern part of the United States), my first chance to see the EAS will be on the night of July 29, 2008, from 9:11:29 p.m. (local time) to 9:13:37 p.m.. It will come out of the north-north-western (NNW) horizon, and have a maximum elevation of about 27 degrees.

To find out when you can see the EAS overhead in your local night sky, please go to the SpaceWeather.com’s Satellite Tracker.

Photographs and a video of the piece of space junk can be found on the http://spaceweather.com/ website.

Until it burns up in the Earth’s atmosphere later this year or early in 2009, it will be visible in the night sky at particular spots on Earth.

When it does re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere, NASA says that, because of its large size, a few small pieces may survive descent and fall to Earth’s surface.