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Author Name: BoingBoing
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License: CC-BY-NC-SA 3.0.[2]


Fantastic fireball over the Midwest this morning was a failed Russian spy satellite

2021-10-20 00:00:00

From Tennessee to Michigan, numerous people were treated to a fantastic fireball tearing across the sky. The phenomenon occurred at 12:43 am EDT today, according to the American Meteor Society. However, the shooting star was no meteor. Rather, it was a failed Russian spy satellite launched last month. From Space.com:

Kosmos-2551 is a Russian reconnaissance satellite that launched on Sept. 9 but apparently failed shortly thereafter. The spacecraft had not adjusted its orbit once since liftoff, [Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer Jonathan] McDowell tweeted on Monday (Oct. 18), noting that Kosmos-2551 was expected to re-enter Earth's atmosphere the next day — a forecast that turned out to be off by less than an hour[…]

The satellite "is thought to be only about 500 kg [1,100 pounds] and no debris is expected to reach the ground," McDowell said…
[END]

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