Delta Rocket Crashes In Mongolia

Dr La writes "Two metal objects, one cylindrical and a smaller round one, crashed near Buren Soum in the Tuv province of Mongolia, in an empty field, on 19 February. They are parts of an American Delta II rocket stage (nr. 35939, 2009-052C) that launched the military STSS Demo 1 & 2 satellites in September 2009. Both articles linked above say that the larger of the two objects is 7.5 meters in diameter, but in this photo it looks more like 7.5 feet. It is marked with the serial number '02728.' (The military STSS program is intended for space-based detection and tracking of missiles.) In the months leading up to the February 19 orbital decay over Mongolia, the fall of the rocket stage was followed by amateur satellite trackers. Based on their final orbit determinations just hours before the decay, the decay must have occurred near 3:32 UTC on February 19."

Comments

Re:Decay happens over a period of time

[wizardforce]

I estimate that the site of the fall is approximately 47.0 N, 105.2 E. Our
final elset, available at the following URL, has the object passing close to
the site within a few minutes of 03:32 UTC on Feb 19. The elements are based
on observations by Tim Luton on Feb 18 near 23:30 UTC, and Jim Nix and Brad
Young one rev later, on Feb 19 near 00:58 UTC.

3:32 was the time that the object was predicted to be in the area of the field in which it crashed. Presumably the object wouldn't take too long to make its final decent (when it actually re-entered the atmosphere instead of remaining in what is essentially a decaying orbit)