Government officials on Saturday issued warnings that a spy satellite lost power and is descending towards the Earth's atmosphere.  It will begin its final plunge towards an Earth in February or March.  The officials warned that the debris from the crash may pose a safety hazard.

Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council, says all options are on the table for dealing with the threat.  He said the event is really not that unusual and that, "Numerous satellites over the years have come out of orbit and fallen harmlessly." He added, "Appropriate government agencies are monitoring the situation."

John Pike, a defense and intelligence expert with Globalsecurity.org, says that the special thing about this satellite is its above average size.  The satellite is estimated to weigh 20,000 lbs and is the size of a small bus.  Still, it pales in size comparison to the 78-ton Skylab, which set the record as the largest manmade object to uncontrollably crash to Earth.  Skylab could have caused serious damage, but when it fell to Earth in 1979, most pieces fell into the Indian Ocean and on a remote part of Western Australia.

Pike stated that the crash of the spy satellite is most dangerous for possibly exposing U.S. secrets if it falls into the wrong hands.  Usually, satellites are controlled to descend into the ocean, both for safety reasons and more importantly to bury these secrets in the watery depths. 

How the satellite lost power and what exactly its function are remains classified and not accessible to the press or public.

Jeffrey Richelson, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive, speculated that the satellite is likely a photo reconnaissance satellite.  Such a satellite is an eye in the sky capable of tracking anything from terrorists to devastating hurricanes.  Further insider information pegs the satellite as being built by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in December 2006 aboard a Delta II rocket.

Apparently, communication with the satellite was lost soon after launch.  Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and an analyst of various government space programs, states, "It’s not necessarily dead, but deaf."

The satellite uses Hydrazine for fuel, a toxic colorless liquid chemical, with an ammonia-like odor.  The chemical is very dangerous to the human body.  Exactly how much of the fuel will survive the atmospheric reentry and the subsequent impact remains to be seen, but this is among the main reasons why government officials are breaking silence to warn of this danger.

The best case scenario would be for the tank to rupture and burn, leaving fiery trail like a meteor. 

The satellite is currently in a decaying orbit approximately 275 km above the Earth's surface.  It has dropped 15 to 20 km in the last month, which indicates it’s approaching atmospheric reentry.