Mystery fireball streaks across Texas sky ....

[Jolie Rouge]

Mystery fireball streaks across Texas sky
Sun Feb 15, 11:31 pm ET

DALLAS – What looked like a fireball streaked across the Texas sky on Sunday morning, leading many people to call authorities to report seeing falling debris.

"We don't know what it was," said Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Roland Herwig.

The Williamson County Sheriff's Office used a helicopter to search after callers said they thought they saw a plane crashing, a spokesman said.

"We don't doubt what people saw" but authorities found nothing, said spokesman John Foster.

The U.S. Strategic Command said there was no connection to the sightings over Texas and Tuesday's collision of satellites from the U.S. and Russia.

"There is no correlation between the debris from that collision and those reports of re-entry," said Maj. Regina Winchester, with STRATCOM.

The FAA notified pilots on Saturday to be aware of possible space debris after a collision Tuesday between U.S. and Russian communication satellites. The chief of Russia's Mission Control says clouds of debris from the collision will circle Earth for thousands of years and threaten numerous satellites.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090216/ap_on_sc/falling_debris

:beamup



Debris From Satellite Crash Possibly Fell Over Kentucky, Texas
Tariq Malik - Senior Editor SPACE.com
Sun Feb 15, 5:45 pm ET

The falling remains of two satellites obliterated in a devastating space collision last week may be behind weekend reports of fireballs spotted over parts of Texas and Kentucky, local media and weather officials said Sunday.


Earlier today, residents across parts of central Texas reported numerous sightings of a bright fireball streaking across the daytime sky, according to several accounts by local television stations and newspapers. The Federal Aviation Authorities (FAA) issued an advisory to aircraft pilots on Saturday alerting them of potential hazards from re-entering debris from the in-space collision of two satellites last Tuesday.


Texas's KBTX News 10 station reported numerous sightings from residents who spotted the fireballs or heard rumbling sounds earlier on Sunday. The Waco Tribune-Herald newspaper cited reports from residents who described hearing an explosion-like sound that rattled windows and shook houses. In both reports, FAA officials attributed the sightings as stemming from re-entering debris from the satellite collision, though none of the debris appeared to fall all the way to the ground.


Last week, the defunct Russian military satellite Cosmos 2251 slammed into the active U.S. communications satellite Iridium 33 as they flew about 490 miles (790 km) above Siberia. The collision destroyed both satellites, creating two large clouds of debris made up of hundreds of individual pieces, some of which may remain in orbit for up to 10,000 years, Russian mission experts have said.


Officials at the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the U.S. Defense Department's Space Surveillance Network that continuously tracks the more than 18,000 separate pieces of space debris in orbit today, said they did receive a report of the Texas sightings on Sunday.


U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Terry Plumb, a spokesperson for the U.S. Strategic Command, told SPACE.com that the center received a 911 call from just outside Houston, Texas, but was awaiting confirmation that it was actually caused by debris from the Iridium 33-Cosmos 2251 satellite crash.


"We haven't received any official reports here yet," Plumb said.


Late Friday, similar sky sightings were also received by National Weather Service (NWS) centers in parts of Kentucky. Like Sunday's reports, the descriptions of explosions in the sky and earthquake-like rumbles were attributed to the likely re-entry of debris from the satellite collision, NWS officials in Jackson, Kentucky said in a statement.


"The Federal Aviation Administration has reported to local law enforcement that these events are being caused by falling satellite debris," the announcement stated. "These pieces of debris have been causing sonic booms ... resulting in the vibrations being felt by some residents ... as well as flashes of light across the sky."


A phone call to the FAA's Southern Region branch, which includes Kentucky and other southern and eastern states, was not immediately returned Sunday.


Brian Schoettmer, a meteorologist with the Jackson NWS office, told SPACE.com that residents across several countries in eastern central Kentucky called their local NWS branches to report the odd sky sightings.


"This was a pretty rare call," Schoettmer said, adding that the FAA told his office that the reports may have been caused by falling debris from the satellite crash. "Really rare, actually."


NASA scientists are tracking the debris from last week's satellite crash to determine the risk it poses to the many science and communications satellites in Earth orbit, including the Hubble Space Telescope. The debris also slightly raised the chances of debris damaging the International Space Station, which orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 220 miles (354 km) - much lower than the satellite crash site - but the increase in risk is relatively minor, NASA officials have said.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090215/sc_space/debrisfromsatellitecrashpossiblyfelloverkentuckyte xas

[Jolie Rouge]

Space crash called "catastrophic," lots of debris
Vladimir Isachenkov, AP Writer
Fri Feb 13, 1:53 pm ET[/i]

http://d.yimg.com/img.news.yahoo.com/util/anysize/400,http%3A%2F%2Fd.yimg.com%2Fa%2Fp%2Fap%2F2009021 2%2Fcapt.7dcbc0897f8d474993e3ac4066de7928.satellit e_collision_ny118.jpg?v=2

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/communications-satellites/photo//090212/480/7dcbc0897f8d474993e3ac4066de7928//s:/ap/20090213/ap_on_sc/eu_satellite_collision

This image provided by the European Space Agency shows and artist impression of catalogued objects in low-Earth orbit viewed over the Equator. Scientists are keeping a close eye on orbital debris created when two communications satellites — one American, the other Russian — smashed into each other hundreds of miles above Siberia Tuesday Feb. 10, 2009. The collision was the first high-speed impact between two intact spacecraft, NASA officials said. The debris field shown in this image is an artist's impression based on actual data but not shown in their actual size or density. (AP Photo/ESA)


MOSCOW – The crash of two satellites has 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.

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, a NASA veteran who is now 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-overdo 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 spacesuit 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.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090213/ap_on_sc/eu_satellite_collision

[Jolie Rouge]

European Space Agency hopes to clean up space junk
By MELISSA EDDY, Associated Press Writer
Mon Feb 16, 10:21 am ET

DARMSTADT, Germany – Wary of the multitude of satellites in earth's orbit, the European Space Agency has begun a program to monitor space debris and set up uniform standards to prevent future collisions far above the planet, an official said Monday.

The euro50 million ($64 million) program — dubbed Space Situational Awareness — aims to increase information for scientists on the ground about the estimated 13,000 satellites and other man-made bodies orbiting the planet, ESA space debris expert Jean-Francois Kaufeler told reporters.

The program was launched in January. On Feb. 10, the collision of two satellites generated space junk that could circle Earth and threaten other satellites for the next 10,000 years.

"What the last accident showed us is that we need to do much more. We need to be receiving much more precise data in order to prevent further collisions," Kaufeler said of the collision.

The smashup happened 500 miles (800 kilometers) over Siberia and involved a derelict Russian spacecraft designed for military communications and a working satellite owned by U.S.-based Iridium, which served commercial customers as well as the U.S. Defense Department.

A key element of the program is to increase the amount of information shared worldwide between the various space agencies, including NASA and Russia's Roscosmos, Kaufeler said.

Kaufeler also said that another aspect that must be examined is establishing international standards on how debris is described, tracked and, if needed, moved so as to prevent any collisions.

U.S. and Russian officials traded shots over who should be blamed for the collision that spewed speeding clouds of debris into space, threatening other unmanned spacecraft in nearby orbits.

No one has any idea yet how many pieces of space junk were generated by the collision or how big they might be. But the crash scattered space junk in orbits 300 to 800 miles (500 to 1,300 kilometers) above Earth, according to Maj. Gen. Alexander Yakushin, chief of staff for the Russian military's Space Forces.

Experts in space debris will meet later this week in Vienna at a U.N. seminar to come up with better ways to prevent future crashes, and the 5th European Conference on Space Debris in March at ESA.

"We need more precision in space," said Kaufeler. "The current measurements (of space debris) are not precise enough."

He noted that neither ESA nor NASA were able to predict last week's collision, although his scientists have been warning for two decades that such an accident could happen.

"The problem of space debris is unique," said Kaufeler. "We need to work together, we need to unify our forces if we are going to solve it."

Also this year, the Europeans plan to launch two new telescopes into space to study the far reaches of space. The Planck telescope will map background radiation that fills space, while the Herschel space telescope will give astronomers a view of far-infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090216/ap_on_sc/eu_sci_europe_space_junk