William Atkins
Monday, 16 February 2009 22:42
Science -
Space
Page 2 of 3
For additional information on the space collision of these two large communications satellites, check out the
iTWire article “
Space highway crowded: Two major satellites collide.”
A News 8 TV photographer, who was covering a marathon in Austin, Texas, shot a video of the incident that Sunday morning.
See the video at CNN.com’s “
Texans report fireball in sky, sonic booms.”
However, the U.S. government is stating that the fireballs that streaked across Texas on Sunday are not from the collision of these two communications satellites.
In fact, Major Regina Winchester, spokesperson for the U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), states,
“There is no correlation between the debris from that collision and those reports of re-entry.” [Fox News: "
Mystery Fireball Streaks Across Texas Sky"]
Strategic Command officials came to this conclusion after comparing the spatial orientation in space of the two belts of debris from the two communications satellites, and the location of Texas at the time of the sightings of the fireballs.
Page three contains statements by SpaceWeather.com as to the cause of the fireballs over Texas.
