Defunct Spy Satellite Falling From Orbit

A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or early March, government officials said Saturday.

1979: Skylab, a 78-ton space station, fell from orbit, scattering debris over the Indian Ocean and remote western Australia. The crash of the American spacecraft caused no damage.

2000: NASA was able to guide the 17-ton Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory back to Earth by using its rockets to steer it to a remote area of the Pacific Ocean.

2002: The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer, here before its launch, fell out of orbit and apparently broke up over the Persian Gulf, thousands of miles from where scientists first expected it to strike. The science satellite weighed 7,000 pounds.