[meteorite-list] OT: Probable launch debris recovered from South Carolina

From: Matson, Robert D. <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 18:48:35 -0700
Message-ID: <7C640E28081AEE4B952F008D1E913F170385D7A7_at_0461-its-exmb04.us.saic.com>

Hi Stuart,

I definitely agree with you that the South Carolina debris is
the inside of a launch fairing. But I've read that the SC
debris had French writing on it, which may rule out being
associated with the X-37B. Don't know -- space hardware is
made by lots of folks, so it doesn't necessarily have to be
from a French launch.

My favorite candidate is the launch fairing that protected the
Helios IIB spysat launched December 18, 2009. (The Ariane launch
prior to that was on October 29, 2009, but it was a commercial
comsat launch, so it would have jettisoned the fairing close to
the equator. Currents there tend not to take things to the East
Coast, but instead down into the South Atlantic.) There is just
about the right amount of time between a mid-December Kourou
launch and when the fairing dumped into the Atlantic could make
landfall on the east coast.

That said, if the X-37B used a French- or Swiss-made fairing,
then it would spend far less time in the Atlantic following a
Cape launch before making landfall. Which means an April Cape
launch would ALSO be the right amount of lag time for May
landfall.

--Rob
Received on Mon 24 May 2010 09:48:35 PM PDT