It’s offi­cially time to freak out … or is it? The AP reports the following:

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

The satel­lite, which no longer can be con­trolled, could con­tain haz­ardous mate­ri­als, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The offi­cials spoke on con­di­tion of anonymity because the infor­ma­tion is clas­si­fied as secret. It was not clear how long ago the satel­lite lost power, or under what circumstances.

“Appropriate gov­ern­ment agen­cies are mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, when asked about the sit­u­a­tion after it was dis­closed by other offi­cials. “Numerous satel­lites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harm­lessly. We are look­ing at poten­tial options to mit­i­gate any pos­si­ble dam­age this satel­lite may cause.”

He would not com­ment on whether it is pos­si­ble for the satel­lite to per­haps be shot down by a mis­sile. He said it would be inap­pro­pri­ate to dis­cuss any specifics at this time.

A senior gov­ern­ment offi­cial said that law­mak­ers and other nations are being kept apprised of the situation.

The space­craft con­tains hydrazine — which is rocket fuel — accord­ing to a gov­ern­ment offi­cial who was not autho­rized to speak pub­licly but spoke on con­di­tion of anonymity. Hydrazine, a col­or­less liq­uid with an ammonia-​​like odor, is a toxic chem­i­cal and can cause harm to any­one who con­tacts it.

Such an uncon­trolled re-​​entry could risk expo­sure of U.S. secrets, said John Pike, a defense and intel­li­gence expert. Spy satel­lites typ­i­cally are dis­posed of through a con­trolled re-​​entry into the ocean so that no one else can access the space­craft, he said.

Pike also said it’s not likely the threat from the satel­lite could be elim­i­nated by shoot­ing it down with a mis­sile, because that would cre­ate debris that would then re-​​enter the atmos­phere and burn up or hit the ground.

Pike, direc­tor of the defense research group GlobalSecurity​.org, esti­mated that the space­craft weighs about 20,000 pounds and is the size of a small bus. He said the satel­lite would cre­ate 10 times less debris than the Columbia space shut­tle crash in 2003. Satellites have nat­ural decay peri­ods, and it’s pos­si­ble this one died as long as a year ago and is just now get­ting ready to re-​​enter the atmos­phere, he said.

Jeffrey Richelson, a senior fel­low with the National Security Archive, said the space­craft likely is a photo recon­nais­sance satel­lite. Such eyes in the sky are used to gather visual infor­ma­tion from space about adver­sar­ial gov­ern­ments and ter­ror groups, includ­ing con­struc­tion at sus­pected nuclear sites or mil­i­tant train­ing camps. The satel­lites also can be used to sur­vey dam­age from hur­ri­canes, fires and other nat­ural disasters.

The largest uncon­trolled re-​​entry by a NASA space­craft was Skylab, the 78-​​ton aban­doned space sta­tion that fell from orbit in 1979. Its debris dropped harm­lessly into the Indian Ocean and across a remote sec­tion of west­ern Australia.

In 2000, NASA engi­neers suc­cess­fully directed a safe de-​​orbit of the 17-​​ton Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, using rock­ets aboard the satel­lite to bring it down in a remote part of the Pacific Ocean.

In 2002, offi­cials believe debris from a 7,000-pound sci­ence satel­lite smacked into the Earth’s atmos­phere and rained down over the Persian Gulf, a few thou­sand miles from where they first pre­dicted it would plummet. 

Here’s how MSNBC is cov­er­ing our immi­nent demise:

So what say we? Lottery time? Will it make it through the atmos­phere intact? If so, when and where will it hit?

Big prizes await! You must be alive to win, how­ever, so if you are hit and killed by the satel­lite you are inel­i­gi­ble for your prize. On the plus side, we will def­i­nitely honor you with a DT post.

And watch out for that hydrazine creamy fill­ing, too.

(Chicken Little appears cour­tesy of Disney.)

– Ward