Spy sat to come home… not too secretly

The news is buzzing that due to a loss of control, a US spy satellite is going to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere sometime in February or March. This sucks, for many reasons. Obviously, it's one less piece of equipment that will gather intelligence Bush will ignore. Haha! That one was for the weenies who hate it when I make political comments. But seriously, besides the loss of an important tool, the loss of control over the satellite means it cannot be guided in for a safe re-entry over an ocean. Satellites, especially big ones (this one is reported to be maybe 10 meters long) don't completely disintegrate when they come back in. They break apart, and some pieces can survive. This includes very dense parts (like, say a telescope mirror) which can withstand re-entry, and ironically, very light pieces, which slow down so rapidly that they don't have enough time ...