William Atkins
Wednesday, 11 March 2009 19:25
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
According to tracking data from the U.S. Strategic Command, the first fragments of the destroyed Russian satellite Cosmos 2251 will be entering the atmosphere of Earth in the last half of March 2009, with more debris following in April 2009.
Strategic Command (STATCOM) is able to individually track these centimeter-sized pieces as they orbit about the Earth.
In fact, they have been designated codes to identify them as they reenter the habitable confines of Earth.
Cosmos 2251 is designed 22675 by the U.S. STATCOM. Its International Designation Code is 1993-036-A, which is where these pieces acquire their designation codes. [HeavensAbove.com: “
Cosmos 2251”]
The first fragment targeted for a deorbit from space is coded 1993-036-X, which is expected to enter Earth’s atmosphere on March 12, 2009.
Then, on March 28, 2009, fragment 1993-036-KW is scheduled to come back to Earth, followed by fragment 1993-036-MC on March 30th.
These three pieces, and hundreds more, were left over when Cosmos 2251
collided with the U.S. Iridium 33 satellite at 1655 Universal Time (UT) on February 10, 2009, about 490 miles (790 kilometers) over northern Siberia in Russia.
For additional information on live data from these orbiting pieces of the Russian Cosmos 2251 satellite, which is about twice as massive as the other satellite, and the U.S. Iridium 33 satellite, checkout the February 14, 2009 iTWire article “
Space highway crowded: Two major satellites collide."
Also read the March 1, 2009 iTWire article “
See real-time debris data from Iridium/Cosmos collision.”
Page two talks about the chance these three pieces will actually hit the surface of the Earth.
