Russian space launch Monday may trigger S. American UFO Sightings, page 1
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Topic started on 28-10-2011 @ 01:50 PM by JimOberg
Russia has released details of the early stages of
its Phobos-Soil mission to Mars, due for launch late
Monday EDT.

See phobos.cosmos.ru...

Russians have issued a request for observers in NE Brazil and also
in French Guyana area to attempt to observe two rocket
engine firings that will send the probe on its way.

In the past, spacecraft rocket firings over South America
have triggered massive UFO sighting reports.

Details to follow -- but pass the word to friends in those areas.


reply posted on 28-10-2011 @ 03:36 PM by JimOberg
Here's more details.



> Scheduled for launch Nov 8, the Space Research Institute
> (IKI, Russia) is very interested in any "near real-time"
> observations and astrometry of the Mars-bound Phobos-Soil.
>
> Of particular interest are observations of two engine
> burns to occur mostly over South America late Nov 8/early
> Nov 9 UTC.
>
> They have set up a website with ground-track plots.
> The site also lets people directly input astrometry
> (MPC 80-column format):
>
> phobos.cosmos.ru...
>
> If you are thinking about reporting observations, sign up
> in advance to get a password that gives access to the data
> input section of the site.
>
> Topocentric tracking predicts are computable from Horizons:
>
> Web:
> ssd.jpl.nasa.gov...
>
> URL interactive window (type "soil" at prompt)
> telnet://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov:6775
>
> UNIX/Linux interactive command-line (type "soil" at prompt):
> telnet ssd.jpl.nasa.gov 6775
>
> During the engine firing, the spacecraft will be only 100's
> of km overhead, moving at many 100s of arcsec/second and more.
> So conventional astrometry will be "a challenge" until relative
> motion slows, even though eyes-on/camera-on/clock-on could be
> invaluable.





reply posted on 28-10-2011 @ 03:54 PM by JimOberg
Originally posted by JibbyJedi
Why didn't they do this before the Norway, Siberian, and Chinese spiral UFOs?
Someone will probably say, "well they are doing it now because of those events."
Yea, like they care about anything we have to say.

Let's see if there are any "spirals" that come from this launch.


You must realize this isn't the blastoff of a rocket for which observations are being sought,
but the later rocket burns IN orbit that send it off to Mars. And because of the geometry of
the final departure trajectory, those burns must occur along the orbit in locations which are
far beyond the borders of Russia.

It's always been that way for deep-space probes. But in the old Soviet days, sea-going tracking ships
were dispatched to loiter in the region below the planned burn, to monitor and command it in real time.
Those ships have been since sold off for scrap.

When the last Russian Mars probe failed, it was because one of these on-orbit rocket burns failed.
But without any radio contact at that point, the failure was never properly solved. That was in 1996.

That's the probe that crashed back to Earth a few hours later, with its plutonium batteries. At first, Russians and Americans [Clinton's FEMA and NORAD] thought it had splashed safely into the Pacific Ocean. but it turned out it actually had crashed in the Andes Mountains. Even after that was belatedly realized, both Moscow and Washington continued to insist -- now falsely -- that the probe was safe at the bottom of the sea and there was no need for anybody to be alarmed.

Visual observations will be valuable to the current launch IF there are any engine anomalies, that's all the motivation. The Russians today cannot afford to deploy their own trackers there, although I do expect they will have embassy personnel in the areas of interest, watching.

Rocket engine burns in the skies over South America have been setting off widespread UFO panics there for decades -- some of the most famous flaps are due to this cause. Nobody in the ufology research community was ever able to make this connection -- another harmful result of their intellectual self-ghettoization from real world science and technology.

The events you refer to are all launches, which occur well within the range of Russian tracking sites, so nobody needs to be asked for help. Even in those cases, the Russians release NOTAMS warnings for temporary shutdown of some airspace. Just because you never saw these messages doesn't mean the launches were secret -- it's just that your own information access is inadequate.

Spiral traces from Soviet/Russian sub-launched ICBMs [SLBMs] and other satellite carriers have been observed and reported for at least thirty years -- it's just there were fewer camcorders in public hands in the past. Again, just because YOU never saw such reports is no evidence for the lack of such reports, just your own lack of knowledge. Probably more "intellectual self-ghettoization".

The spiral is usually NOT caused by a 'tumbling rocket' [although in some cases, over China, it can be], but is a feature of a solid-fuel upper stage 'dumping energy' for a less than full range test shot. Unlike liquid fuel rockets which can be turned off even with fuel remaining, soilds cannot be -- so they 'waste' excess thrust by canting off-line while rolling to even out the forces.

There really are rational explanations for these things which seem to puzzle you. Thanks for giving me the chance to provide them. Has it helped?


reply posted on 28-10-2011 @ 04:36 PM by JimOberg
Trajectory data: phobos.cosmos.ru...



Thin red line – coasting in sunlight

Thick red line – burning in sunlight

Thick black line – burning in shadow

Thin black line – coasting in shadow



First on-orbit burn: November 08 // 22:55:48 GMT for 9 min 30 sec

phobos.cosmos.ru...

Begins over Chile, south of Concepcion, heads northeast over Rosario/Parana [west of Buenos Aires], Urugualana, up the Argentine/Uruguay border, Londrina, just NW of Montes Claros, and off the coast between Natal and Fortaleza, then into Earth’s shadow.



Second on-orbit burn Nov 09 // 01:02:49 GMT for 17 min 20 sec

phobos.cosmos.ru...

Cross coast of Peru near Ica, head NE, south tip of Colombia near Esperanca, Brazil, across eastern Venezuela, cross coast at Orinoco’s ‘Boca Grande’,visible from Trinidad and neighboring islands, enter Earth shadow while still burning, heading NE out over Atlantic.


reply posted on 2-11-2011 @ 03:37 PM by JimOberg
more info:

Past observations of rocket firings over South America [and elsewhere]



Dear Denis:



Regarding your request for ground observations of the two Fobos-Grunt trans-Mars

insertion burns over South America, described by Ted Molczan here:

Phobos-Soil Project seeks observations of engine burns from South America

satobs.org...



The visibility of a Fregat engine firing is, as you say, an important question.



Rocket burns in orbit have been observed since nearly the beginning of the space age,

along with the often more spectacular propellant dump cloud, when sun-lit, from twilight areas

on Earth's surface. Almost all such observations have been accidental, and have been reported

as 'UFOs' in Russia, China, North America, and -- yes! -- South America.



Over the years I've done a lot of research connecting many such observations to the original

space events. Some links are provided below. Much more spectacular apparitions involving

launches and re-entries dominate the entire collection of 'spacecraft UFO reports' but they

are not of interest to this current project. Most Soviet-era 'UFO waves' were actually caused

by such events but apparently Moscow officials were happy to leave ordinary Russians in

the dark, confused about the origin of such spectacular sky displays, since they involved

national defense activities.



I hope these links provide some context for the question of observability of the Fregat burns. You

understand my interest in the post-Burn-1 propellant tank jettison and venting, because the cloud

may be MORE visible than the engine plume and may confuse and mislead some ground observers.



Please feel free to distribute these links and my comments far and wide, as you see helpful.



I have also written and spoken about Fobos-Grunt, such as here:

discovermagazine.com...

www.lpi.usra.edu...

www.jamesoberg.com...



Happy landing on Phobos -- and then back on Earth!



Jim Oberg



links to articles



Sky and Telescope magazine [Feb 1988]

Spacecraft Activity as "UFOs" www.jamesoberg.com...



Astronomy magazine, July 2002

Close encounters with satellites [especially fuel dumps and deep-space burns]

www.jamesoberg.com...



South American UFOs caused by orbital rocket burn for Molniya-class missions:

www.debunker.com...



August 1987, OMNI magazine "Space Sex Dream Solved" [www.jamesoberg.com...] Jim describes a report from March 2-3, 1978, from 18-year-old Brazilian Jose Inacio Alvaro, who witnessed a ball-shaped UFO crossing the sky and later responded to telepathic messages to meet a female alien in a field for interplanetary intercourse. Hypnotic regression by UFO investigators confirmed the story. Jim suggests the UFO was a sunlit fuel dump from the booster rocket carrying the Molniya 1-39 into space, which was passing over Brazil at that time. But it's still a classic "true UFO" on the internet: here [inexplicata.blogspot.com...] and here [link defunct]



Propellant-dump observed across North America, August 1986

www.csicop.org...



Kosmos-1833 propellant dump observed in Alaska [March 18, 1987]

www.jamesoberg.com...



First known record of ground observation of an orbital rocket burn:

[from letter posted on www.outtahear.com...]

The identification of Russian UFO reports with secret space and rocket activity is a fertile field for further research. Here's a quick example. On page 130 Vallee highlights an astronomer's report from the Shemakhinskiy Observatory in the Caucasus Mountains, which reportedly occurred on November 30, 1964, at 1500 GMT. I'd never heard of it before, but the date rang a bell so I checked my files. On November 30, at 1312 GMT, the Zond-2 probe blasted off from Baikonur. After circling Earth once (which takes about an hour and forty minutes), it lit up its engine again over the Crimea to inject the probe towards Mars. Someone on the ground in darkness would have seen a flare in the sky and in the following minutes an expanding cloud of sunlit gas. That would have been "an unusual celestial object" in anyone's book, to be sure! If anyone can provide further details about this case, such as motion, I can work up a ground-track prediction to see if the two objects -- the Zond-2 booster and the UFO -- happen to coincide in time and space.

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