Express Decay

Rainer Kracht (R.Kracht@t-online.de)
Mon, 25 Dec 95 22:15 +0100

>Date: Sat, 23 Dec 95 17:00:04 EST
>From: Ben Huset <benhuset@skypoint.com>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <fpspace@solar.rtd.utk.edu>
>Subject: Mirwatch Jan '96

>MIRWATCH
>January 1996

>News and Comments by Ben Huset

>Lost and Found: Geoffrey E. Perry, who heads the Kettering Space Observer
>Group, has found a $17-million German/Russian spacecraft.  "Express" was
>given up for lost into the Pacific ocean, after its Japanese booster
>malfunctioned on Jan. 15, 1995.  Unknown to launch officials, it came
>floating down, 2.5 orbits later, safely on its parachute near a partially
>inhabited area of Ghana, West Africa.

>Ghanians heard a sonic boom, looked up and saw this large bell shaped,
>smoking object, the size of a car,  slowly descending on an orange
>parachute.  The Ghanians saw the spacecraft land -- and found Russian
>Cyrillic writing on its parachute. They had no idea it was a German project
>launched from Japan. The vehicle generated an article or two in the local
>newspaper. But there was no significant action on the vehicle, until
>research by Perry helped to locate the spacecraft for Daimler-Benz Aerospace.

>Ben J Huset
>MN SFS | MAS 
>FAX 612-638-9964
>BENHUSET@SKYPOINT.COM
>www.skypoint.com/~benhuset/