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An old fridge thrown off the International Space Station last year is set to re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere shortly, according to reports, delivering a volley of 100mph space frag debris to an as-yet unknown impact site…
The disused ammonia-powered stink-tank might more normally have been shipped back to Earth aboard a space shuttle, but in the end no room was found. Astronaut Clay Anderson dealt with the problem briskly in July last year, flinging the hefty three-quarter-ton unit off the end of the space station’s robot arm along with an old camera mounting also deemed no longer necessary.
In the year-plus since, the orbital pong-bomb has gradually slowed down due to the friction exerted by the extreme upper atmosphere, thus descending and becoming subject to more friction and so on. In effect, the EAS has hung above our heads like an evil-smelling Sword of Damocles, which might suddenly plunge down to release its payload of eyewatering space niff at any time. The tipping point at which the slowing and dropping suddenly accelerates and the descent begins in earnest is expected imminently; surviving pieces of the EAS should reach Earth today…
NASA exploding-space-fridge experts have worked out that the largest pieces of tank which could survive might be as big as 15lb and travelling at 100mph. The fridge-frag shower will most likely fall out at sea, but might conceivably hit a populated area if things turn out unfortunately.
“If anybody found a piece of anything on the ground Monday morning, I would hope they wouldn’t get too close to it.”
As many as 15 pieces of the tank may survive reentry, with sizes ranging from an ounce to nearly 40 lbs.. Paranoid geeks or the techno-unlucky are advised to stay indoors or to wear a heavier-than-usual tinfoil helmet.
Jacques Cousteau warned about this problem years ago.
Let’s see if Indy makes it outta THIS one…
It’ll be a cold day in hell when a black man is elected President. Maybe heaven could send a few refrigerators their way.
Obamaman will fly up and catch the space-refrigerator before it can harm anyone.
Then he’ll drop it on McCain’s head.
#4, chuck,
That wouldn’t hurt anything. Maybe Obamaman should drop it on Palin’s head. Oopps, no damage there either.
Ok, never mind.
Hmm, it’ Monday and no catastrophe. I guess not a news item.
Wasn’t there a TV show about a girl hit by a toilet seat from the ISS? I’m too lazy to google.
He should be cited for littering – possibly with intent.
Hrrmph
Damned irresponsible behaviour 😉
# 7 RTaylor
Dead Like Me. It was a great show.
Hold my beer and watch this?
Help!! Help!!! The Skylab is falling!!!!
oopps wait that happend already….
“Dead Like Me” is still showing reruns on HDNet. Dynamite series.
It was JCD’s post about Bryan Fuller – way back – that got me looking for the series:
http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=6177
When I got up this morning I noticed a large dent in the side of my truck. At first I thought it was because my wife backed into it again and confronted her about it. She showed me this article about the falling refrigerator and cleared it all up for me. Man was she lucky. I was ready to get all up in her grill.
By the way, I have a refrigerator for sale, slightly dented. You can see it in my front yard. It’s between the trans-am on blocks and the atv with no wheels out front of the trailer.
Rupert Murdoch announced today a special Space Harm Insurance Tactic program.
For just $5,000 per household, your property will be fully indemnified against any harm caused by the falling refrigerator.
Just send your credit card number to Fox News in your local area.
# 13 moss
Pushing Dasies is another wonderful show of his. JCD is right in so many ways in that article.
Obama gets elected and this hits a church or something: Hilarity ensues.
Hope they saved the beer.
“civil army”? Oxymoron? Or just moronic … like the proposer?
I bet there won’t be a word in the news about the space fridge f-ing up the ozone layer. But we all had to pay more for home A/C and fridge repairs, to keep any coolant from leaking toward the south pole’s upper atmosphere. Yet NASA saves some dough just dumping a broken fridge straight into it. How do we really know it’s ammonia powered, and not freon? Seems like they stressed that in the article, a bit too early. Like they knew they’d better quell environmental concerns about CFCs. Why didn’t they just use electric thermocouple technology to replace liquid coolants? What made smelly ammonia so much more attractive? Its lowest contractor bid?