NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite will fall out of orbit soon, with large pieces perhaps reaching Earth's surface, according to NASA's Nick Johnson at a telephone press conference. John Matson reports Look out below! A defunct satellite the size of a school bus is falling back to Earth. NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, is expected to reenter the atmosphere at the end of September. And pieces of the satellite will probably survive the fiery breakup. "We looked at the hundreds of different components on UARS, and we believe that we know what's going to survive. We just don't know where.” Nick Johnson of NASA's Orbital Debris Program. “And we believe it's going to be 26 different components that will hit the surface of the Earth somewhere, with a total mass a little over 500 kilograms." UARS studied the atmosphere from 1991 to 2005. It's 35 feet long and about 13,000 pounds, which is large by space junk standards. But debris falls from space all the time, and big objects the size of UARS come down about once a year. Since Earth is mostly water and sparsely populated land, chances are UARS won't cause any harm. But “we just will not know precisely where it's going to come down until it's come down." So keep watching the skies. —John Matson

美國國家航空和宇宙航行局發言人尼克約翰遜在一個電話新聞發布會中表示，美國國家航空和宇宙航行局的高層大氣研究衛星即將脫離軌道，大片的殘余物可能會落到地球表面。地面上要注意了！一個失去功能的衛星，與校車大小接近的殘余物將會落到地球上。美國國家航空和宇宙航行局的高層大氣研究衛星，簡稱UARS，預計將于九月末返回大氣層。衛星的碎片有可能會在熾烈的摩擦中幸存下來。美國國家航空和宇宙航行局軌道碎片研究組的尼克約翰遜表示：我們自己比對了數百種UARS中的不同組分，并且堅信得知了什么物質將要幸存下來。只是不知道將落在哪里。并且我們認為將要有26中不同的成分將要撞擊到地球上的某處，重量總計略高于500千克。

高層大氣研究衛星于1991至2005用于研究大氣。它的長度為35英尺，重量約13000磅，比太空垃圾的標準值大。但是一直會有碎片從太空落下，并且每年將會有一個大小同UARS接近的大物體落下。由于地球表面大多是水或是人口稀少，UARS有可能不會造成傷害。

但是“直到碎片落下來，我們才能精確的知道碎片將會落到哪里”。所以要觀察天空。——約翰沃森報道