[meteorite-list] Space junk - marine life - shame on NASA

[Greg Catterton]

It is the first thing I was aware of, until reading more about it.
I know what ifs are really meaningless, however... if it had landed on a school full of kids, Im sure the cost of returning to earth would have been very cheap compared to the loss of life.
If it had impacted on a house or other private property, would NASA have been liable?

The replies about this have been really good and informative, Thanks to all for your input.

Greg


--- On Mon, 11/3/08, Chris Peterson <clp at alumni.caltech.edu> wrote:

> From: Chris Peterson <clp at alumni.caltech.edu>
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Space junk - marine life - shame on NASA
> To: "Greg Hupe" <gmhupe at htn.net>
> Cc: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> Date: Monday, November 3, 2008, 2:23 PM
> Hi Greg-
> 
> This thing was, in fact, deliberately discarded with the
> knowledge that it 
> would reenter. It posed no risk to anything else because it
> was large enough 
> to track, in a known orbit, and was sure to have a short
> lifetime in space. 
> It had no potential to produce any additional debris.
> 
> This isn't the first thing they scuttled from the ISS.
> 
> Chris
> 
> *****************************************
> Chris L Peterson
> Cloudbait Observatory
> http://www.cloudbait.com
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Greg Hupe" <gmhupe at htn.net>
> To: <star_wars_collector at yahoo.com>
> Cc: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2008 12:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] Space junk - marine life -
> shame on NASA
> 
> 
> > Hello Greg,
> >
> > Where do you read that an astronaut, "..threw it
> (ammonia tank) overboard 
> > (from the International Space Station) during a space
> walk in July 2007."? 
> > I find it highly unlikely that material would be
> purposely tossed into 
> > space to potentially be a floating target for future
> spacecraft and/or 
> > satellites to hit. I do not think NASA has the same
> mindset that some 
> > cruise ship operators have by throwing their bags of
> trash into the ocean.
> >
> > My thoughts!
> > Greg
> 
> ______________________________________________
> http://www.meteoritecentral.com
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list