Most of the time we do rely heavily on people on the ground," Nick Johnson, chief orbital debris scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, told reporters in a news briefing Saturday (Sept. 24). "UARS, whether it came in during the local day or local night, would have clearly been visible."

Johnson said there were some people along the western coast of North America that were hoping to capture views of the dying satellite. Since the agency did not receive any plausible reports, this would further suggest that UARS did, in fact, splash down in the ocean without ever reaching North America.

"If we continue to have a lack of reports of seeing something that looks like a re-entering UARS, that would give further credence to the fact that its probably over water," Johnson said. "We're going to continue to keep our eyes and ears open and if we receive reports like that we'll try to go verify."

But their live tracking site is "in development and closed for business" is that any surprise?