100% Space Trash: Cygnus re-entry video 22JUN2016

100% Space Trash: Cygnus re-entry video

A recent article on New Scientist shows a Cygnus spacecraft being incinerated during atmospheric re-entry.

The video was shot from a chartered aircraft out of Sydney, Australia - "to track the craft during its descent, recording how it brightened and broke up."

Note the **velocity** of the Cygnus spacecraft as it burns-up, which is much slower (relatively speaking) than a 'normal and natural' meteor/fireball/bolide.

This video can be used as a teaching tool to help differentiate between 'space trash' and space rocks - for future observations/reports.

Background 'space rock' update:

Overnight (7-July->8-July), there has been a small increase in the number of <0.5AU discoveries for current period "N" (1-Jul to 15-Jul).  The new total rose to 388, with 2016 NN15.

So far, in period "N", the number of <10LD new discoveries increased to a modest 5;  2 of which are in the >1<5LD range and 3 in the >5<10LD range.

Total <0.5AU discoveries for 2016, so far, is 30,258.  217 of these have close-approaches <10LD (0.7171%).

Source for stats: EISSCO

2016 The THIRD Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™ / Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!

Louisiana Loud Boom - Mystery NOT solved / Meteor After All?

Update- 18OCT2014 0515 JST
X-37B Returns Safely / Louisiana X-37B Loud Boom - Mystery NOT Solved / Meteor Again?

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
From: 30th Space Wing Public Affairs, www.vandenberg.af.mil

X-37B ORBITAL TEST VEHICLE-3 LANDS AT VANDENBERG AFB
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle mission 3 (OTV-3), the Air Force's unmanned, reusable space plane, landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:24 a.m. Oct. 17 . "The 30th Space Wing and our mission partners, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, Boeing, and our base support contractors, have put countless hours of hard work into preparing for this landing and today we were able to see the culmination of that dedication," said Col Keith Balts, 30th Space Wing commander. "I'm extremely proud of our team for coming together to execute this third safe and successful landing. Everyone from our on console space operators to our airfield managers and civil engineers take pride in this unique mission and exemplify excellence during its execution." The OTV-3 conducted on-orbit experiments for 674 days during its mission, extending the total number of days spent on-orbit for the OTV program to 1367 days. "The landing of OTV-3 marks a hallmark event for the program" said the X-37B program manager. "The mission is our longest to date and we're pleased with the incremental progress we've seen in our testing of the reusable space plane. The dedication and hard work by the entire team has made us extremely proud." The X-37B is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft. Managed by the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, the X-37B program performs risk 

reduction, experimentation and concept of operations development for reusable space vehicle technologies. The Air Force is preparing to launch the fourth X-37B mission from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in 2015.

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Louisiana X-37B Loud Boom - Mystery Solved NOT Solved -Scrap this hypothesis
SECRET X-37B Re-entry Path Over Shreveport, LA. 13OCT2014 -- Controlled Deceleration of the Craft Caused the Loud Boom!
Convenient cloudy overcast provided cover.
written 2340 JST,  16OCT2014 Tokyo
by Dirk Ross...LunarMeteoriteHunter, Tokyo

SECRET Boeing X-37B / NASA

Since the mystery Loud Boom in the Shreveport, Louisiana area on Monday, October 13 at approximately 4:27 pm CDT, the event was felt and heard by thousands of residents in and around the city.and even over the state line into Texas some 35 miles away.

   At the time of the event I started getting an unusual pattern of traffic indicating an event and then queries starting coming in.  I immediately set off to post about the event in hopes of capturing reports from witnesses and to break the news story ahead of the media..  Minutes later I had the event confirmed via my network.

  Since Shreveport has had past loud booms, one on October 15, 2012 being the most recent, it was first guessed that it might have been a munitions bunker again, but it wasn't.  The Calumet plant was the next suspect because they had a prior loud boom; Calumet - negative!  Pipelines, other possible factories, and the military bases no cause was found.

 The next likely culprit, and my favorite at the time was a bolide, a large meteor, entering and fragmenting and this hypothesis lasted about two days for me.

 After contacting Marc Fries, a meteor radar expert, asked him to search for possible radar debris evidence;  Marc reported, "Nothing!". Meanwhile the National Weather Service, found a debris plume to the southeast of Shreveport.  NWS called the artifact a debris cloud. Marc found the same artifact on the same radar 15 minutes PRIOR to the event, discounting radar debris field evidence.

  This started me thinking about other possibilities. Was it a re-entry craft or vehicle, and what kind?

   The Google Search bar quickly found the SECRET X-37B, "Space Drone", was scheduled to be back at any time soon and of course secret, but open sources gave the location as Vandenberg AFB in California, but I also found that there was talk of landing one "in the future" at KFC as a trial run.

  Ok, I had my possible cause, looking more deeply into the bowels of Google and an IDEA hit me; check the Columbia return path!  Well I didn't just then, but I found that the Columbia had first entered over land at San Francisco, California and was to land at Kennedy Flight Center.  On Google Earth, I drew a line between the two locations, the line went right over Shreveport!  I found the Columbia's path on an official map, the map showed the flight path right over the Shreveport, LA area.

  This set me off on a search chase to find out more about the X-37B ......which I will write about later.  ........More about the story to come................ to be continued after I have some sleep

  The previous original post reports and prior updates can be read here -
http://lunarmeteoritehunters.blogspot.jp/2014/10/shreveport-louisiana-loud-boom-meteor.html

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About me The Lunar Meteorite Hunter-
 This website, The Latest Worldwide Meteor/Meteorite News, 24/7. Utilizing the monitoring system, MBIQ "Meteor Bot Internet Query" bot. - Dirk Ross...Tokyo

2014 The Year of "CERTAIN Uncertainty" ™; Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!!

PA VA GA Long Duration Meteor 27JAN2013 Soviet Satellite Re-entry

Soviet Satellite Re-entry, NOT Meteor After All
PA VA GA Long Duration Meteor ~21:30 EST 27JAN2013

UPDATE
COSMOS 1484 Soviet satellite re-entry seen on radar!
At ~21:30 EST, 27JAN2013, an old 2500 kg (~5500 lb!) Soviet satellite fell from orbit over the eastern US. The resulting fireball traced a path from Ohio all the way to Georgia, on a north-to-south and slightly westerly path. Eyewitnesses reported the event over a similarly large area. ...and man oh man does it ever show up on radar! The satellite broke up into dozens or hundreds of small, angular metallic fragments which reflect radar pulses extremely well. Weather radar shows the signatures of falling debris from central Ohio into Georgia.
http://www.galacticanalytics.com/cosmos-1484-deorbit-28-jan-2013-0228-utc/

It would be very difficult for us to accurately model the dark flight of these fragments, as we don't know either their density or aerodynamic properties. But it is entirely likely that pieces will be found somewhere along the path of the satellite. Also, an eyewitness in Georgia reported sonic booms associated with the falling object. This indicates that a large (very large?) body or bodies may have landed in the vicinity of Atlanta.
Cheers,
Marc Fries, Rob Matson, Jake Schaefer and Jeff Fries
Galactic Analytics LLC
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Anyone else witness this meteor event; please file a meteor sighting report on this site:
http://thelatestworldwidemeteorreports.blogspot.jp/2011/12/december-2011-meteorfireball-sighting.html

Initial Reports:
27JAN2013 Daniel Phillips Williams Township, PA USA 9:45 pm, EST approx. 20 seconds Object moving Right to Left in the West (we were facing West) Red ball with long yellow tail brightness like a larger Mars, as the fireball was reddish, not star-bright not that we saw was much more prominent than any meteors we have previously seen, and the red color with yellow tail was unique to us.

27JAN2013 Will Krepps Over Richmond VA 2130 20 sec S Yellow Orange less than moon more than venus flame trailer horizontal to ground

27JAN2013 Krepps Midlothian, VA 2130 20 sec South Yellow orange - silent Brighter than venus trail of fire moving horizontal to horizon

7JAN2013 keiota stone mountain, GA USA 21:30:00 unknown n-s orange/white moon no did not see parts breaking away.. but I did see multiple balls in sky. About 6-8 balls.

27JAN2013 Reid Decatur Ga 2130 4 sec n-s Blue Venus no 4 tails

27JAN2013 john suwanee, ga 2130 5-10sec s red fire like Sun 7-8 fireballs biggest shower I've seen
2013 THE Year of Meteors, Asteroids, Comets, and MORE!