[meteorite-list] Uganda "meteor" was space debris

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:50:25 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C8698E5B7F_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi All,

Mike Farmer will be glad he didn't needlessly risk life and limb
traipsing off to Uganda to look for meteorite fragments:

<http://allafrica.com/stories/200204100271.html>

Appears that the reentering object (at which the locals were firing
their guns!) was a piece of space debris, namely the Ariane 3
rocket body that launched GStar 1 (USSPACECOM #15679).
Alan Pickup has analyzed the predicted reentry ground track,
and it coincides nicely with the ground coordinates where an
object "the size of a big pot" was recovered.

Best,
Rob

 
Received on Wed 10 Apr 2002 03:46:05 PM PDT