Remember late January '97 and the SeeSat-L posts regarding the Delta II 2nd stage reentry in Texas? Rob Landis forwarded this on to me. I would appear "someone" has finally "fessed up" to its origin. For those that might not know, you can find SeeSat-L archived posts at http://www.physics.ox.ac.uk/sat/seesat/hyper/ (This forwarded post was heavily edited to remove an unrelated news account.) -Jeff Hunt <jhunt@eagle1.eaglenet.com> --- On Tue, 25 Feb 97 10:10:00 EST "Landis, Rob" <landisr@anser.org> wrote: >My apologies if you've alrady seen this. worth a read.. >Rob. > ---------- >>From: Sloan, John >>To: Facktor, Debra; Landis, Rob; Tahu, George; Turner, Ron; Wilson, Jim; >>SAD >> - Space Analysis Div >>Subject: Delta tank hits Texas intact >>Date: Monday, February 24, 1997 1:01PM >> >>Some news: >> >>Pieces of a second stage tank from a Delta 2 rocket crashed intact >>into a Texas field on January 22, 1997. The largest remains of the tank >>found, measuring, 2.7 meters by 2.1 m tank was made of stainless steel. >>The Delta 2 was launched from Vandenberg on April 24, 1996. The tank >>impacted at 3am waking residents near Georgetown, Texas (just north of >>Austin), and landed 45 meters from a house and 135 meters from Highway >>29. A titanium sphere used to hold gas that forces propellant into the >>2nd stage engine was recoverd to the south in Seguin, Texas (east of San >>Antonio). Pundits are puzzled as to why the tank did not break up in the >>atmosphere, believed to be the first to reenter in history of Delta s 227 >>launches. Nick Johnson wondered if this happens more frequently than >>believed and if stainless steel can survive reentry. The tank piece is so >>heavy, Johnson said, that "[w]e had four guys at the site. We couldn t >>even roll it over." The Delta 2 >>launched MSX, a BMDO/science payload. [For two photos, see page 4, Space >>news Feb 24, 1997] -----------------End of Original Message-----------------