Piece of Russian Cosmos satellite - any comms?

[Jay911]

Greetings,

Sometime in the mid-morning here in Calgary area, we (local emergency dispatch) were notified by provincial Emergency Management officials that a 10-square-meter piece of that Cosmos satellite that had a fender bender with an Iridium bird earlier this week was going to come down somewhere 0 to 110 km east of Calgary. A couple of hours later we were told to disregard because it "ended up in the Atlantic". First of all, way to go whoever was doing the calculations on this one .... second, did anyone else get warnings, and/or involved in any sightings or recovery?

[tonsoffun]

I did not hear any warnings here Jay. Wow, there usaully dead on with their calculations

P.S Where is the Provincial Emergency Management located?

[AlmostHandy]

Wow ten square meters is a huge chunk of space debris. I wonder how big it has to be to even be a threat? I suppose bit small enough would just burn completely away, but ten meters is huge.

I would imagine that the size and weight are estimates, giving their calculations less accuracy.

This is the first unintentional space collision. There are tens of thousands of satellites up there, and all of a sudden, there are thousands of new bits of debris roaming around. I'm betting an ablation cascade is near. Very exciting.

[rdale]

Originally Posted by AlmostHandy

I'm betting an ablation cascade is near.

Sorry - orbital space is too big for this to have that sort of impact.

[AlmostHandy]

Originally Posted by rdale

Sorry - orbital space is too big for this to have that sort of impact.

That's just what they want you to think.

[Jay911]

Originally Posted by tonsoffun

I did not hear any warnings here Jay. Wow, there usaully dead on with their calculations

P.S Where is the Provincial Emergency Management located?

Edmonton - and I presume they got their warning from some place like Space Command or whereever.

All I know is we were already smokin' busy with multiple calls on the go (slippery roads today plus long-weekend preparation traffic) and our trunk radio network was developing an issue which was causing people to get busy signals when trying to transmit, thus making them flip out, and then we hear about space debris going to fall on us???!

[rdale]

Originally Posted by AlmostHandy

That's just what they want you to think.

Who is "they", why do they want "me" to think that, and how would they overcome the laws of physics which prove that that won't happen for a L O N G time if ever?

[ShawnCowden]

It fell in Kentucky, West VA, TENN, and VA

[ShawnCowden]

The crash of two satellites 500 miles over Sibera has caused alarm in Kentucky. The collision generated an estimated tens of thousands of pieces of space junk that could circle Earth and threaten other satellites for the next 10,000 years, space experts said Friday. Several of those chunks caused concern in Southeastern Kenutcky Friday night.

The 27 NEWSFIRST Newsroom checked into numerous reports of sightings of blue and white lights in the sky, as well as loud booms that, in some cases, rattled homes. So far, emergency officials in Kentucky believe the falling debris from the satellites has covered a 500-mile area in North America, but has led to no injuries or damages.

One expert called the collision "a catastrophic event" that he hoped would force President Barack Obama's administration to address the long-ignored issue of debris in space. Russian Mission Control chief Vladimir Solovyov said Tuesday's smashup of a derelict Russian military satellite and a working U.S. Iridium commercial satellite occurred in the busiest part of near-Earth space - some 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth.

"800 kilometers is a very popular orbit which is used by Earth-tracking and communications satellites," Solovyov told reporters Friday. "The clouds of debris pose a serious danger to them." Solovyov said debris from the collision could stay in orbit for up to 10,000 years and even tiny fragments threaten spacecraft because both travel at such a high orbiting speed.

James Oberg, an experienced aerospace engineer who worked on NASA's space shuttle program and is now a space consultant, described the crash over northern Siberia as "catastrophic event." NASA said it was the first-ever high-speed impact between two intact spacecraft - with the Iridium craft weighing 1,235 pounds (560 kilograms) and the Russian craft nearly a ton.

"At physical contact at orbital speeds, a hypersonic shock wave bursts outwards through the structures," Oberg said in e-mailed comments. "It literally shreds the material into confetti and detonates any fuels."
Most fragments are concentrated near the collision course, but Maj.-Gen. Alexander Yakushin, chief of staff of the Russian military's Space Forces, said some debris was thrown into other orbits, ranging from 300 to 800 miles (500-1,300 kilometers) above Earth.

David Wright at the Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security said the collision had possibly generated tens of thousands of particles larger than 1 centimeter (half an inch), any of which could significantly damage or even destroy a satellite.
Wright, in a posting on the group's Web site, said the two large debris clouds from Tuesday's crash will spread over time, forming a shell around Earth. He likened the debris to "a shotgun blast that threatens other satellites in the region."
Meanwhile, there's no global air traffic control system that tracks the position of all satellites.

The U.S. military tracks some 17,000 pieces of space debris larger than 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters), along with some 900 active satellites. But its main job is protecting the international space station and other manned spacecraft, and it lacks the resources to warn all satellite operators of every possible close call.

"With the amount of spacecraft and debris in orbit, the probability of collisions is going up more rapidly," said John Higginbotham, chief executive of Integral Systems Inc., a Lanham, Maryland-based company that runs ground support systems for satellites.
Oberg said the limited accuracy of tracking data and computer calculations makes it impossible to predict collisions, only their probability. He said most satellites also have little fuel to escape what most likely would be a false alarm.

"The collision offers a literally heaven-sent opportunity for the Obama administration to take forceful, visible and long-overdue measures to address a long-ignored issue of 'space debris,'" Oberg said.

In January 2007, China destroyed one of its own defunct satellites with a ballistic missile at an altitude close to that of Tuesday's collision, creating thousands of pieces of debris which threatened other spacecraft.

Both NASA and Russia's Roscosmos agencies said there was little risk to the international space station, which orbits 230 miles (370 kilometers) above Earth, far below the collision point. An unmanned Russian cargo ship docked smoothly Friday at the station, delivering water, food, fuel, oxygen and other supplies as well as a new Russian space suit for space walks.

American astronauts Michael Fincke and Sandra Magnus are aboard the station along with Russian Yuri Lonchakov. The crew size will be doubled to six members later this year.

AP Technology Writer Peter Svensson in New York and AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington contributed to this report.

[ShawnCowden]

27 NEWSFIRST started receiving phone calls tonight telling us a loud boom, or series of booms were heard this evening in Southern Kentucky.

So we called emergency officals, to find out what is going on.

Brian Reams of the Laurel county EMS tells us they've had calls from Jackson to London, about a loud boom.

He says there are no reports of any injuries or damage.

In the last little bit, Reams says he's been told by the state police in London that according to the FAA, the boom is from falling debris, coming from two satellites that collided in space.

The debris re-entering the atmosphere caused the loud boom, and then burned up before hitting earth.

Reams says it could have covered a 500 mile area.

[ibagli]

Some people were calling in to some law enforcement agencies around here (East of Columbus, OH) saying they saw stuff in the sky earlier this evening ("like fireworks"). I wondered if it was from that.

[W8RMH]

I saw a large (what I thought was a meteor) come down south of my location (Columbus, OH) Friday night. It was the largest falling item I have ever seen. I never heard anything on the news though. This must have been it. Thanks for the REAL news.

[rdale]

No. The alert posted here was incorrect to begin with. It was a piece of a Progress booster that went to the space station which ended up falling off Canada.

The "real" news about the Columbus / Kentucky / Texas reports was a plain-old meteorite. The collision debris was on the other side of the world when these fireballs were seen.