The rather tragic end of a grand science project such as a space satellite is the re entry which practically demolishes it. We heard a lot of noise about the recent satellite crash to earth. People were searing that parts of it fell near a small town in Canada, while Forbes (dot) com insisted that the satellite fell in the Pacific ocean and no where near Canada.

The natural preoccupation that we have with space includes the fascination of something akin to the “sky falling on our heads” rather like Chicken Little. Of course in that story it really was a piece of an alien ship. Wonder what the Canadian would have to say if that happened.

Any how, to get back to the point in question. Is there any real danger when we hear of satellites falling to the earth? Not much. As with any science project you have a number of people working out the data of the orbit and crash landing site well before the satellite is allowed to re enter the atmosphere.

However as with all science projects there is also the element of risk. Something that has not been thought up of can often go wrong and often does. Still there no grave physical danger in most such cases as most of the large satellites that have fallen to earth have managed to do so without any major incident.