Dead NASA Satellite Falling From Space, But When & Where? | The Facts About NASA's Doomed UARS Satellite

An out-of-control NASA satellite that is dead in space will plunge back to Earth in the next few weeks, but exactly when and where the spacecraft will fall are still a mystery, space agency and military officials said today.

The spacecraft, called the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, is about the size of a school bus and is expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere sometime between late September and early October, NASA officials said. The nearly 12,500-pound (5,668-kilogram) satellite will fall over a stretch of land more than 500 miles (804 kilometers) long somewhere between northern Canada and southern South America.