The odds that a falling satellite will kill you on Friday are probably zero — but maybe not quite.

A dead hulk of a NASA satellite the size of a bus is skimming the top of the atmosphere, and as air molecules bounce off, its orbit is decaying until gravity finally pulls it down as a fiery meteor.

To be specific, 26 large pieces of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, the heaviest about 330 pounds, are expected to survive all the way and hit the surface. The debris will stretch along a 500-mile path.

At the same time that NASA has been spewing out bland itinerary updates — by Wednesday evening, North America had been ruled out as a crash pad — the event has turned into a bit of a media and pop culture phenomenon. Just about every major news outlet started weighing in on the impending arrival. On Facebook, people were linking to news stories and adding their own ruminations, like “Wear a hardhat” and “Should we be concerned?”

On Fox News, the anchor Shepard Smith dubbed Friday “Bus Day U.S.A.” and called the network’s coverage “the stupidest thing we’ve ever done.”