Hello, Did someone observe this ? Just curious. If the film is several tens of meters long, then it would have had a 'TIPS-tether' effect I think. However it should have decayed very soon, due to low mass and low orbit effects. > The Russian Space Troops press service yesterday refuted reports by the > US strategic command that the Don detailed photographic reconnaissance > satellite (launched from Baykonur in August 2003 under the designation > Kosmos-2399) had ceased functioning, breaking up into five pieces in > orbit (Kommersant reported this on 25 November). > > In fact the Don has not lost functionality and continues to > photograph sectors of the earth's surface. According to Kommersant's > information, what happened was this. Because the capsule containing the > latest film (the capsules are dropped back to earth) had separated > incorrectly, it was not fired out but simply fell out of the satellite. > The film began to unwind (it is several tens of metres long). Flickering > in the solar rays, it was identified by ground-based technical > observation devices as three objects flying close to the Don. The fourth > was the capsule and the fifth was the satellite itself. ----------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from SeeSat-L, send a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@satobs.org List archived at http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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