Re: decayer(s) in Finland

Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 3 Sep 1997 19:33:53 +0100

In message <0021350E15000001010881C12F042E@tiimipas.nls.fi>, Vuorela
Arto <arto.vuorela@nls.fi> writes
>
.    snipped: Details of light phenomena observed from 
.             Gulf of Finland around 19:30 UTC on 
.             1997 August 29.
>
>Nothing was found. The coast guards suspect that space junk had
>glown in the atmosphere. Can anybody confirm, which might that 
>(those?) have been? I can send the results for the coast guards.

The Proton-K rocket which launched PanAmSat-5 decayed around one hour
later than this, according to my SatEvo decay list #37. The uncertainty
is such that it might have decayed around 19:30 UTC. However, the
inclination and orientation of its orbit mean that this decay could not
have been observed from Finland. I know of no other objects decaying on
that day.

Alan
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