[meteorite-list] Re: Fireball Over Portugal?

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:49:01 2004
Message-ID: <200109191713.KAA26050_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Here's the original report I've received:

  In the dawn of the last Sunday (16/09/2001) at 3.30am (UT), 4.30am in
  Portugal, many people saw a fireball in the sky. The fiery meteor across
  the sky in the littoral of the country in the direction W-N. Most
  eyewitnesses said the object traveled close to the Atlantic coast and
  saw the object broke up like fireworks into four five pieces. One woman
  in the north of Portugal made a home video of the meteor with a
  camcorder in wich we can see at least 14-15 pieces of the object.20
  The video passes in the portuguese television with the testimony of the
  eyewitnesses. We have observations of the object in line with 360 Km.

I now suspect though that this was a reentry of rocket debris, from
a launch made in either 1964 or 1966. There were two reentries expected
on September 16.

   International Catalog Forecasted
   Designation Name Number Decay Date

   1964-006AD ELEKTRON 1 DEB 20224 September 16
   1966-005N TRANSIT 11 DEB 24704 September 16

Ron Baalke
Received on Wed 19 Sep 2001 01:13:37 PM PDT