NASA Genesis Reentry Visible from Oregon to Utah

An anonymous reader writes "The Genesis spacecraft will be visible as an artificial meteor starting in early morning over Oregon until its spectacular helicopter capture above the Utah desert (11 AM EST in the US). Although today's reentry simulates meteor physics, the valuable payload for Genesis is a billion billion atoms on semiconductor wafers now showered with solar wind particles. Unlike the Russian space program, few American capsules have tried overland reentries until the two extraterrestrial sample return missions, Genesis today and Stardust in 2006." Update: 09/08 16:04 GMT by T : RossCarlson writes "Stuck at work today and can't watch Nasa capture the Genesis probe live on TV? You can stream it in both Windows Media and Real (Video | Audio) formats from Nasa TV. Looks like the estimated capture time is around 10:10 a.m. PST. I for one can't wait to see them capture it!"

Comments

Spy sats have used parachute recovery systems

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"Unlike the Russian space program, few American capsules have tried overland reentries until the two extraterrestrial sample return missions, Genesis today and Stardust in 2006.

The early KH-1 spy satelites ejected film canisters which would reenter and be caught by aircraft.

http://www.danshistory.com/spysats.shtml#corona

Not the same as a whole sat, but still pretty impressive for 1960.