NASA Believes Satellite Debris Landed

Pieces of NASA's 20-year-old Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, are believed to have landed on earth early Saturday morning ET, the US space agency said, adding they were attempting to confirm exactly where.

"We expect that the debris has landed by now," NASA said on its Facebook page at about 1:30am ET. "We're just waiting to get confirmation of where from the US Strategic Command that keeps an eye on space debris."

"We're still waiting for #UARS Done! confirmation. If debris fell on land (and that's still a BIG if), Canada is most likely area," the agency tweeted about 25 minutes later.

The dead satellite was expected to burn up during its re-entry, but around 26 potentially hazardous objects with a combined mass of about 1,172 pounds (532kg) were expected to survive. The heaviest piece to fall from the sky was expected to be about 348 pounds (158kg), according to NASA's risk assessment.

The agency predicted there was a one in 3,200 chance that someone would be hit by space junk.

Earlier Saturday morning, NASA tweeted, "It's possible that #UARS is down by now. (Everybody OK out there?) We're waiting for confirmation from US Strategic Command."

The US Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice to pilots and flight crews of the potential hazard, and urged them to report any falling space debris and take note of its position and time, AFP reported.

Read more: NASA/Facebook