Crashing of failed satellite Phobos-Grunt
Posted: Sun 15 Jan 2012 3:37 pm
I've been watching this closely. For those that don't know, here are some news articles: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A ... K77Ce7_OmY .
Woops. That was long. Anyway, it is headed your way, and is due to crash in the next few hours. The middle of the 3 day window is 1803hrs UTC, so very unpredictable. they say it will crash east of Latin America, but if they are wrong, will continue to cross West Africa and into Europe. You can read more on my Facebook page (link at bottom). Apparently it has already been sited in Europe with a yellow glow. It is the largest satellite to fall since the Russian Space Station. 2000kg with 11500kg of toxic rocket fuel that was meant to send it 76 million kilometers to Phobos, a moon of Mars, but failed to fire the rockets and has been slowly decending in orbit since it's lift-off on the 8th November, 2011. Most of it will burn up in a fire ball, however, parts were designed for re-entry and up to 200kg will make it to Earth. This is currently travelling at 27,500km/hr, or once around Earth every 87 minutes @ a very low 127.57km as of 1342hrs UTC. It's lowest point in it's oliptical orbit is when it crosses the equator going NE. Re-entry is expected to last around 30min (I think?), which is one third around the Earth. No doubt it will decelarate rapidly. Next crossing of the Equator will happen at 1636hrs UTC/GMT. It's 1:10 in the morning. I'm going to bed. Good luck.
Woops. That was long. Anyway, it is headed your way, and is due to crash in the next few hours. The middle of the 3 day window is 1803hrs UTC, so very unpredictable. they say it will crash east of Latin America, but if they are wrong, will continue to cross West Africa and into Europe. You can read more on my Facebook page (link at bottom). Apparently it has already been sited in Europe with a yellow glow. It is the largest satellite to fall since the Russian Space Station. 2000kg with 11500kg of toxic rocket fuel that was meant to send it 76 million kilometers to Phobos, a moon of Mars, but failed to fire the rockets and has been slowly decending in orbit since it's lift-off on the 8th November, 2011. Most of it will burn up in a fire ball, however, parts were designed for re-entry and up to 200kg will make it to Earth. This is currently travelling at 27,500km/hr, or once around Earth every 87 minutes @ a very low 127.57km as of 1342hrs UTC. It's lowest point in it's oliptical orbit is when it crosses the equator going NE. Re-entry is expected to last around 30min (I think?), which is one third around the Earth. No doubt it will decelarate rapidly. Next crossing of the Equator will happen at 1636hrs UTC/GMT. It's 1:10 in the morning. I'm going to bed. Good luck.
