20,000lb Spy Satellite - Plummeting Uncontrolled to Earth

I don't know about you, but I plan on keeping a watchful eye toward the heavens, and an ear on the radio over the next few weeks.  Coming out of Washington today, Associated Press is reporting that yet another satellite has "died" and is now falling towards Earth.

I feel like I'm in a Bruce Willis movie and Gary Sinise is bound to appear soon.

A satellite dies when power is lost and this one is projected to fall some time in late February or early March.

(Please Note: the images to the right are not of this satellite - I
haven't been able to find any photographs of the current satellite and
it's position.)

Wonderful, so if we had not had the benefit of this small group of "whistle blowers" speaking out, the public still wouldn't know about this coming catastrophe.

Why is it that the government always thinks that the public will feel better knowing:

This "soothing (nothing but) nattering" was spoken by a spokesman for the National Security Council - Gordon Johndroe, after the news had already been leaked to the press.

The last time this happened, we were lucky - NASA had managed to control the satellite, which also fell out of orbit but broke up over the Persian Gulf - thousands of miles from where they expected it to land.  The science satellite weighed 7,000 pounds.

They, and we, have no idea this time where the current satellite will fall - which is truly frightening.  Well I've learned something there - I always thought that they came down in the ocean to prevent the impact from hurting anyone - but silly me!  I should have realized that the government had other priorities.

Pike who is the Director of the Defence Research Group for GlobalSecurity.org, also explained  that they're unable even to shoot it down with a missile, since it would create debris and fall in multiple places all over the ground.  Even more frightening, is that this satellite doesn't weigh the mere 7,000 pounds of the last one, but weighs 20,000 pounds and is the size of a bus.

Officials are attempting to downplay the event that they themselves attempted to keep from the public from knowing.  They claim it will "most likely" fall into the ocean - though they have absolutely no way of knowing at this point.

We're hearing platitudes such as: The government constantly believes that the populace are stupid and don't understand the consequences of such an event if the satellite should happen to fall on land that is densely populated.

Another worrying point, is that the spacecraft might be carrying hazardous material.  What do they mean by "might," - don't they know what's on their own spacecraft?

Pike went on to say that there "might" be beryllium on board, which is a light metal with a high melting point - possibly leading to chronic, incurable respiratory problems.

This metal is used in the defense and aerospace industries.  I still want to know why they aren't sure whether it's on board or not.

It's speculated that the spacecraft is likely a photo reconnaissance satellite.  These kinds of satellites have been invaluable to gather information from space - not just in being able to locate militant terror training camps, but also for locating nuclear sites and monitoring fires and other natural disasters.

Part of the information leaked to the press by four senior U.S., officials was that the satellite is: The satellite known only as L-21 was built by Lockheed Martin and cost "hundreds of millions of dollars."

Why isn't NASA proudly waving their flag now?  NASA - you screwed up - big time.

Sources:

AOL News
    Re: 2002 The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer
Fox News
NASA
MSNBC
Wikipedia
Global Security.org
United Press International

Image Source:
AOL News
Movie