RE: Decay of Mars Pathfinder rocket
Craig Cholar (3432P@VM1.CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL)
Thu, 27 Nov 97 08:10:16 PST
I didn't see the decaying Mars Pathfinder rocket during an overhead
pass in bright twilight, under partly cloudy skies. This surprised me,
as I had no trouble seeing a similiar Delta II 2nd stage pass in
August 1997. That pass of the GPS 2R-2 Delta II rocket body was mag
0. The sky was a bit darker for that pass, but not by much.
If you live under the reentry path, watch out... Back in January '97
a very large piece of a Delta II 2nd stage survived reentry and landed
near Austin Texas, just missing someone's house. There's a webpage
about the reentry that was mentioned back then by Ed Cannon, and it's
still online:
http://www.k-eyetv.com/ufo.html
You can also read more about it in the Seesat-L archives:
http://www.satellite.eu.org/seesat/hyper/Jan-1997/
Here are some photos from the NASA archives that you might find
intersting...
(If the site below seems dead, try later. I was browsing through
many interesting photos there an hour ago, but now I'm not getting
any response using my browser or by pinging.)
Photo of Pathfinder and PAM-D solid upper stage:
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/96pc1302.htm
Photo of Pathfinder, PAM-D, and open fairing:
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/96pc1315.htm
Photos of a Delta II 2nd Stage (for Mars Global Surveyor)
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/11443f11.htm
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/11445f10.htm
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/kscpao/captions/11442f12.htm
Craig Cholar 3432P@VM1.CC.NPS.NAVY.MIL
Marina, California
36 41 10.3N, 121 48 17.9W (36.6862, -121.8050) UTC -8