Interesting speculation about the recent fireball. However, wouldn't it take a fairly large satellite/rocket body to put on that big of a show (i.e., Skylab)? I would assume meteors to be intrinsically brighter than a reentry because meteors are solid metallic rock and are travelling about 8 times faster than an LEO satellite. And if a satellite/rocket body is lacking a heat shield, would it not break up pretty quickly? -- Jim +------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Jim Varney, P.E. Sacramento, CA Civil Engineer jim.varney@24stex.com +------------------------------------------------------------------------+