Don't be a Donna

Satellite Weeks Away from Hitting Earth

This worked better as a West Wing C-plot than in real life.

From season 2, "The Fall's Gonna Kill You":

Ed and Larry approach, laughing.

LARRY: Donna.
DONNA: Yeah.
LARRY: Have you seen C.J.?
DONNA: No. What’s so funny?
LARRY: Ed just got a fax... [laughing] I’m sorry. Ed just got a fax from a man named Byron Talmadge. He’s the Associate Administrator for NASA’s Office of Space Cadets....
ED: Flight.
LARRY: Office of Space Flight.
ED: The OSF.
DONNA: What’d the fax say?
LARRY: A huge Chinese satellite is gonna come crashing to Earth, and we don’t know where, and we don’t know when.
DONNA: Seriously?
ED: Yeah, it’s right here in the fax.
DONNA: A satellite is... crashing to Earth and NASA sent us a fax?
ED: Yeah.
DONNA: This is for real.
LARRY: Yes.
DONNA: [terrified] A satellite is gonna crash into the Earth?
ED and LARRY: Yes!
DONNA: Why are you laughing?
ED: We thought it was funny.

The two of them turn to leave.

DONNA: I’m an assistant. What am I supposed to do with this information?
LARRY: The fax was for C.J., just give it to her when you see her.
WOMAN: Donna, they say it’s not going to rain this afternoon.
DONNA: Well, that’s a relief. [walks off]

Later, end of Act 4

C.J. turns away. Josh follows after her.

JOSH: You know, uh, Donna got hold of this fax that was sent to the press office from the OSF at NASA.
C.J.: What, something falling out of the sky?
JOSH: Yeah.
C.J.: We get that fax once a week.
JOSH: Yeah, but Donna doesn't know that. She thinks it's an emergency.
C.J.: And you didn't want to tell her?
JOSH: No, 'cause the other way you get a day's worth of entertainment without leaving the office. She doesn't know that these things fall out of the sky all the time... once every ten days, as a matter of fact. Since the first year we started putting man-made objects in space, 17,000 have come back and remarkably, not one person has been hit. [beat] So I suppose there's an argument to be made that we're due.
C.J.: Yeah. You picked me right up there, Josh.

C.J. crosses the street.

JOSH: See you tomorrow!

We pan up to the "Pennsylvania Ave 1600 Block" street sign and -

DISSOLVE TO: END TITLES.
FADE TO BLACK.
THE END

P.S. - The math says you're safe. Several tons of meteors actually make it through the atmosphere and hit the ground every day, and no one's ever been killed. Every planetary science undergrad at the University of Arizona gets to / has to crank out the math on this one. Bottom line, there's sooo much earth and sooo few people. You're good.