I don't know what these most recent debris objects from Mir are, but there is a history of debris associated with almost every Mir EVA. Many of the debris objects, particularly those with very high drag coefficients appear to be trash bags (I guess it's too difficult to load up the Progress tankers with the trash before they are deorbited), but none of the recent objects have the traditional signature of trash bags. I think a bit too much is being made of the collision hazard associated with these particular debris objects. They will have a relatively short lifetime, they are in orbits used by only a few other objects (such as the Shuttle and some PKMs), and they're large enough and with stable enough drag coefficients to be readily tracked and avoided. The real debris problem relates to small pieces of operational debris and debris from fragmentation events that aren't readily tracked. Joel_Runes@email.fpl.com "PERSONAL OPINIONS ONLY" ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Mir debris Author: seesat-l@iris01.plasma.mpe-garching.mpg.de at Internet-Mail Date: 10/28/95 3:44 PM Does anyone know what these fragments are? The mind reels with the possibilities... a lost glove? Camera? Nuts and bolts? Bits of plastic? It seems if they are visible from the ground they can't be that small. What was the initial delta-V when they left MIR for their independent existence?