Article: "Space Junk Threatens Orbiting Satellites"

Ed Cannon (edcannonutaustin@netscape.net)
26 Aug 99 04:48:32 CDT

August 25: "Space Junk Threatens Orbiting Satellites":

 http://www.space.com/business/launching/spacejunk-1_824.html

"WASHINGTON (States News Service) -- Space is a very big place, with its
numerous planets and moons and comets separated by unimaginably huge gulfs of
void. But around the Earth, it has gotten positively crowded. ..."

Featured in the article is the Center for Orbital and Reentry Debris Studies:

 http://www.aero.org/cords/

This page has information regarding Orbital Debris Research at the Johnson
Space Center (mentioned in the article):

 http://sn-callisto.jsc.nasa.gov/

It includes "Update to History of On-Orbit Satellite Fragmentations" with "the
five breakups that occurred between 1 August 1998 and 1 July 1999":

http://sn-callisto.jsc.nasa.gov/measure/sat_frag_update.html

OBS: Austin had at least seven easy one-power objects last night (early 26
August UTC) including a sort of (not too close but within one-power "field")
three objects, two doubles of Resurs O1-3 Rk (23343, 97-74B) and GRO (21225,
91-27B) together followed by GRO, south of Altair, with a +1 double flare of
Iridium 76 north of that star.  Later were UARS (21701, 91-63B), OAO 2 Rk
(03598, 68-110B), Lacrosse 3 (25017, 97-64A), and Cosmos 1536 Rk (14700,
84-13B).  I saw all of them one-power within about 25 minutes while walking
home from my office.  And it wasn't even a super-clear night -- just several
bright objects in a short period of time.

Ed Cannon - ecannon@mail.utexas.edu - Austin, Texas, USA


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