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Falling satellite: 10 times space junk has crashed into Earth

Falling satellite trackers at NASA say it will hit Friday night or Saturday morning and has a small chance of crashing in the US. But the precise track and timing of the falling satellite is still hard to predict. What is known is that events like this have happened before. From NASA rockets to Soviet satellites – including debris that actually hit someone – the history of falling space junk is long. Here are 10 other pieces of space junk that have survived the blazing voyage through Earth's atmosphere.

1. March 2011: Russian rocket piece lands in Colorado

Newscom/File
A Zenit-3F rocket makes its way to the launch pad of the Bakinour Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in July.

  • By Andrew Mach Contributor

In March, a hiker in northwestern Colorado came across a crater apparently caused by a large spherical object, still warm to the touch. The hiker called military aerospace officials but was told to contact a local police department instead. Eventually, the hiker reached the NASA office responsible for tracking space debris, and the spherical object turned out to be from a Russian Zenit-3 rocket launched in January. It’s one of only a handful of space debris to be found in the US.

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