Originally posted by Zaphod
Originally posted by tom.farnhill
if it still laden with fuel then surely it would explode when it comes though the atmosphere and gets super heated
so i don't think the danger to earth is as great as they say .
also why is there not some kind of self destruct on these things , and if they start to show that they could present a danger by an uncontrolled return to earth , they could just blow the thing to bits
/facepalm
You need to understand orbital dynamics better (or at all). The absolutely worse thing you could do with a failing sat is turn it into thousands of smaller peices that could hit other sats.
Doesn'r Zaphod need to do a TWO-handed facepalm? Just wondering.
Two points:
Objects hitting the atmosphere can experience severe SKIN heating, but it might take a long time --
minutes, tens of minutes -- for heat to soak into the structure if its thick enough and cold enough.
Small meteorites land 'cool' -- their internal below-0-deg temperatures overcome the hot outer skin, especially since the hottest stuff sloughs off during the 10 to 20 second heat pulse, and falls as dust. They have been observed to form frost layers, in hot humid climates. Weird but true.
They also experience severe deceleration forces -- 10 to 20 G's -- and if not strong enough can collapse and fragment. Like the Columbia shuttle and its crew.
If they do, or if the chemical fuel explodes or just flash vaporizes in a 'steam explosion', all of the pieces are already falling to Earth and NONE will threaten other satellites still in orbit.
... first strike... Since we are all
"allegedly" so close to a AJ WW3 
... I'll get the Organic Vodka & put it on 'Instant Ice
Age'... YE-ALL bring the SIRIUS---(Beluga caviar) 
