The biggest piece of US space junk to fall in 30 years could hit Earth late on Friday or early Saturday, NASA said as it struggled to predict where and when the defunct satellite would crash. NASA stressed that the risk was “extremely small” that the 26 fragments expected to survive re-entry would hit any of the planet’s seven billion people.
As rumors of potential crash sites lit up the Internet, Italy took the unusual step of warning residents to stay indoors late Friday to avoid a 1.5 percent risk of the six-ton satellite hitting the northern part of the country. The latest NASA data showed the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) was slowing down and changing its path so that a US landing could no longer be ruled out.
