Reentry flames over the East Coast

[Eagle]

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/local/article/BOOM30_20090329-234409/244022/

A rocket booster returning to Earth exploded over Cape Hatteras last night and likely caused the booming and strange streaks of light reported from North Carolina to Maryland, according to a source at the National Weather Service.

 

[simonpro]

Some of the comments associated with that story are absolutely mind bogglingly retarded.

Anyway, this piece of space junk was the upper stage of the soyuz launch from a few days ago. Somewhat embarrassingly NORAD missed their decay prediction by 14 hours and (not surprisingly) missed their decay location by about half the planet. Not one of their finer moments

 

[Andy44]

I like the references to the War of the Worlds radio show.

 

[vettes]

Here is a news video.

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=4226712&cl=12727172&src=news

 

[MajorTom]

Sorry I missed it.

Nothing spacely ever happens here in Seattle.

Maybe the North Korean Taepodong will somehow make it across the Pacific. But it's no fun to be a target, either...

 

[ozone]

Well, maybe the Air force did not screw up
http://www.space.com/news/090331-likely-meteor.html

 

[Hielor]

Well, maybe the Air force did not screw up
http://www.space.com/news/090331-likely-meteor.html

From that article: "Residents of the areas around Norfolk and Virginia Beach, Va., began calling 911 Sunday night with reports of hearing a loud boom and seeing a streak of light that lit up the sky, according to news reports. Some said their houses shook."

Seriously? 911? For a meteor?

What the hell is 911 going to do about a meteor?

 

[Andy44]

Same thing the New Jersey cops did in the 1930s when people called them about that pesky Martian water tower out across the cornfield Orson Wells was telling them about! According to the reports I've read, the "hysteria" caused by the radio show is much overblown; there weren't really that many people going nuts, but a few who went really nuts, going so far as to load up the pickup truck and head to the Peeksill Mountains. Many of those who phoned the police were told by the cops to calm down, it's just a radio show.

 

[Omhra]

:rofl: man... people's reactions are wild. Imagine now if aliens showed up...

I remember in November 2001 I drove out to the Nevada desert and watched the amazing Leonid meteor shower...

That was amazing... 2 hours of multiples, medium and large streaks, ghostly bangs with no sound, just flashes...
... I bet the ISS holds its breath...
Perhaps they call 911.

 

[mjessick]

(Movie) "The Lost Missile" - 1958

A scientist (Robert Loggia) must stop a rogue missile's Earth orbit before its heat of velocity fries New York.
-----

How quaint

(showing April 1st on TCM - Turner Classic Movies)

 

[tblaxland]

"heat of velocity"? Yikes!

The review from NYT makes it sound a little more promising:
http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/30156/The-Lost-Missile/overview

 

[simonpro]

Well, maybe the Air force did not screw up
http://www.space.com/news/090331-likely-meteor.html

Sounds believable. That article gets the decay time wrong for the booster still, but the location is right.
The USAF must be quite happy, a chance to be right and a chance to prove the Navy wrong.