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Jewish World Review Sept. 20, 2011 / 21 Elul, 5771 Cloudy, cool, chance of falling satellite By Dale McFeatters
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Maybe not this Friday but someday, there is a person destined to be an important first in the history of human mobility. If history is any guide, this person's name will quickly be forgotten.
In 1850, British MP Williiam Huskisson inadvertently became our first railway casualty,when, attending the opening of a new rail line, he started across the tracks to greet a friend and was run over by a train coming down the adjacent track.
How about Irish scientist Mary Ward in 1869 who became the first person to be killed by a car when she fell out of one? Or Bridget Driscoll who in 1896 became the world's first automotive pedestrian fatality when she stepped off a curb in London and was hit by an oncoming car?
The first airplane fatality was Lt. Thomas Selfridge who in 1908 was aboard a plane piloted by Orville Wright that crashed at Fort Myer, Va., killing Selfridge and badly injuring Wright.
On Friday, "give or take a day," say the experts, giving themselves some leeway, a research satellite, variously described as between five and seven tons and looking like something that might dock with the Death Star, is to plummet earthward.
The satellite is expected to break up into 26 pieces, the largest about 350 pounds, about the size of one of the NFL's largest linemen, albeit one that is falling from more than a hundred miles up.
NASA says all continents except Antarctica are susceptible of being hit by debris. Now might be a good time to visit that penguin ranch the nice door-to-door salesman sold you.
Without any explanation, NASA says if you find a piece of the satellite -- meaning that they expect at least some of it to hit here and people may come across the debris -- leave it alone and inform law enforcement authorities. Which raises the question: If it's so harmless, why not let people do the natural thing and hang it one the wall in the den?
NASA says the chances of a person being hit by the debris, which could actually be quite small, are 1 in 3,200. But that's probably what the Royal Automotive Club told Bridget Driscoll when she asked if it were safe to cross the street.
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