Russian Rocket Falls From Space Over Prince George

Thursday, March 13, 2008 10:07 AM

Prince George, B.C. - That "Meteor" that flashed through the sky last night over an area from Kamloops to Dawson Creek has now been identified.

Michael Kucharek, of NORAD says the object was in fact a Russian SL6 rocket body that left space and was visible as it hurled towards the ground.

Kucharek says the rocket body is from an old type Russian rocket.

(diagram of SL6 at right) The Molniya launcher (SL6/A2e) is the most powerful of the SS6 Sapwood derivatives. It uses an even more capable upper stage engine than the Soyuz. Its principal use has been to place payloads (principally Molniya communications satellites and Cosmos military payloads) into highly inclined, highly eccentric orbits. The first satellite placed into this highly eccentric, highly inclined orbit was called a Molniya; from this both the orbit type and launcher have drawn their name. This launcher has not flown any geostationary missions. It launched, in February of 1961, the Venera 1 Venus probe, and possibly two attempts at Mars probe launches in 1960. Its main launch facility is Plesetsk, although it has also been launched from Tyuratam. As with the previous two boosters, the Molniya launcher is also available commercially.

The object was viewed by thousands of people across BC following a path roughly from Kamloops to Dawson Creek.

One of the first people to contact Opinion250 said he was parked at PG Saw Mill when he saw streaking overhead what he thought appeared to be a large airplane crashing.

He thought that the fire ball was going to crash somewhere around Huble Homestead.

However we did receive reports that the space junk was viewed in Dawson Creek. Yet another reader said they saw the fire ball over Kamloops at 12:50 this morning.

Because of the numerous calls the police were receiving, RCMP dispatched cars around the region with the expectation they would be dealing with a plane crash, they reported nothing. Then the Air Traffic Control of BC said no airplane was either reported missing or delayed which led police to think that it must have been a giant meteor.

The RCMP says that while they take over any investigation, if a piece of the Rocket survived the fall from space , they do not go out looking for it. The area in question is 500 kilometers long, said a spokesman , if someone finds a piece and reports it , we will look into it.

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Posted on Thursday, March 13, 2008 10:07 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on March 13 2008 10:44 AM

More burning. Will this be brought up at the Clean Air meeting? Probably should send a note to the Russians telling them of our air quality problems and that they should get a permit and go through an environmental review before they do anymore unauthorized burning.

Northern Health could provide a list of the toxic byproducts so the Russians don't do this anymore. Or may the Russians think we are just being a little too sensitive?

Posted by: getajob on March 13 2008 10:50 AM

"Michael Kucharek, of NORAD says the object was in fact a Russian SL6 rocket body that left space and was visible as it hurled towards the ground."

Hmmm how can this be confirmed? At least we know that it was not a meteor. Looked more like an aircraft with one wing missing the way it was crashing. Hope they provide us with video, it would be interresting to see.

Posted by: heidi1555 on March 13 2008 11:00 AM

Uh ok??? This is kind of scary.

Posted by: Harbinger on March 13 2008 11:12 AM

Maybe them visiting Ruskies can take their space trash home with them. Even if they put it in a "diplomatic immunity bag".

Posted by: Harbinger on March 13 2008 11:15 AM

Maybe calling the Ruskies on their space trash makes me a bigot? Some one would think that. But not me.

Posted by: slick on March 13 2008 11:42 AM

haha... I guess with no hells angels in town the RCMP is now hoping for plane crashes.

Posted by: Eagleone on March 13 2008 11:54 AM

I would think space junk of this size is tracked, so why was their no heads up announced? At minimum others could have taken a look at an impressive light show. What if it had landed in the city? With that kind of velocity I'm sure it would leave a mark.

When was this particular rocket launched and what was it carrying (satelite, or military test)? This class of rocket is the R-7 family from what I can tell and it can carry a 3.5 megaton thermonuclear device with an accuracy of 2.5km at 8500km distance. What went wrong, why was it so far off track?

The plot thickens....

Posted by: thereasonableman on March 13 2008 12:42 PM

The Russians should be given a fine for burning without a permit, from all the municipalities from Kamloops to Dawson Creek. Then, NAVCAN can send them a fine for failing to file a flight plan. Then, Fish and Wildlife can fine them for destruction of habitat. Then, they can be fined for environmental contamination and unauthorized dumping, as well as being billed for all the cleanup. Forestry can bill them for the stumpage on the number of trees damaged, and we can lease them the land that the rocket landed on, for as long as it takes to clean it up.

Once all those fines are paid, we'll invite them to the Olympics, since they will have paid for most of it. Thus, this takes some of the pressure off of the average taxpayer.

I'm brilliant !

Posted by: silverpete on March 13 2008 2:23 PM

"RCMP dispatched cars around the region with HOPE of finding a plane crash".....I would certainly hope not!

Posted by: lostfaith on March 13 2008 2:42 PM

Ya, pretty poor choice of words there

Posted by: heidi1555 on March 13 2008 3:03 PM

Jay Leno would love that line.

:)

Posted by: astro on March 13 2008 5:00 PM

There are thousands of these objects in space orbiting the Earth. Most will burn up in the atmosphere and a few will enter our atmosphere in a dramatic way. Remember the US satellite that came down recently. It was shot down so it wouldn't crash and release its poisonous materials. Or so they said. Some think it was shot down as a test for the US defense system against objects in orbit.

Posted by: camoose on March 13 2008 9:33 PM

I tink that possibly that Russian rocket was union made Yam Poo. Cam\n't have that union stuff falling from our capitalist skies now can we. I wonder if they will be charged a carbon tax.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on March 13 2008 11:09 PM

Made by Comrades, an early form of unions that requires lots of vodka. Unions only need a little mary-wanan on the back of the boat. ;)