(UPDATED) Maybe It’ll Fall On Congress

Yeah, global financial markets are way down, the Pakistani intelligence service conspired with insurgents to attack the U.S. embassy in Kabul, and the Chicago Cubs will not be going to the World Series yet again. But the big news is that pieces of a disintegrating NASA satellite that once was the size of a bus are expected to enter the Earth’s atmosphere late Friday or early Saturday as a fiery meteor and some of the bigger chunks may actually hit the surface.

Where nobody knows for sure, but North America is not being ruled out.

The impending reentry of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, launched in 1991, is generating some concern and a lot of jokes, and is being compared to the Skylab space station falling to Earth in July 1979.

Skylab was the size of a house and when pieces of it fell in Western Australia, no one was injured, although local authorities did fine NASA $400 for littering.

NASA urges anyone who suspects they have found debris from the spacecraft not to touch it and inform the local police.

Incidentally, most homeowners insurance policies are likely to protect against any damage caused by the flying debris involving aircraft or flying objects including articles dropped from them.