The following is an excerpt from rt.com | August 10, 2012 |
Two communication satellites, Express MD2 and Telcom-3, which failed to deliver into orbit, will fall on Earth in six month’s time. Most of the planet is being threatened with space bombardment as the sats will not completely burn on re-entry.
The satellites remain in elliptic orbit together with a Briz-M upper stage, which still has some fuel in it and an element of framework. It is understood that an abnormal engine cut-off caused emergency separation of the satellites from the upper stage.
The objects are circling the planet on an orbit with 5,500 kilometers in apogee and 300 kilometers in perigee.
The sight of all that equipment falling after burning upon re-entering the atmosphere promises to be really impressive – if only you do not happen to be in the impact zone.
The chance to find yourself in the way of white-hot debris falling from the sky remains for practically all inhabitants of our planet, exhilarate space experts.
“The space vehicles and upper stage remain on 49.9 degrees inclined orbit. So the impact zone might be anywhere from 50 northern latitude to 50 southern latitude,” a source in the Russian space agency told Interfax.
That puts all of Africa, Asia, Australia, practically all North and South Americas, under threat of satellite fall. High latitudes, as well as Europe below the line of Frankfurt-Prague-Kiev, are excluded.
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