North Korean satellite 'tumbling out of control,' US officials say

The east coast?? Haven't we been through enough crap lately. Geez....I guess I'll keep busy tracking it and hope someone comes along here and can give us a good guess where it might land...can't our military take care of this type of thing??

reply to post by zilebeliveunknown

There was sight for satallite vectors that used amatuer astronomers and their observations to calculate its orbit before. I imagine they are doing it still.

is it the first unicorn in space??


IS IT?!


???????????


this is an artist depiction of the satellite.

As you can see Godzilla has knocked it out of orbit.

DAMN.... Now the thing is gaining altitude!!!

reply to post by TerrorAlertRed


I saw that as well and the tracking backtracked from over the South China Sea to back over Russia this site is either glitching or something is going on. My two cents...

SaneThinking

reply to post by SaneThinking


It's a variable mission I suspect. They can load advanced recon systems on board, and have the ultimate ISR platform, or they can be testing systems for advanced space based weapons. There's no telling. Personally, I think that the second flight was a recon flight. The orbit that it settled into went over the exact same location every 72 hours.

reply to post by zilebeliveunknown


Because the orbit isn't classified, and has been tracked on every flight by amateur skywatchers. It's what happens during that orbit that's classified.

But even without knowing the orbit, if you look at the trajectory that both were launched on, they don't end up anywhere near each other. Satellites launched out of Vandenberg are much closer to the trajectory of the NK satellite, where launches from Canaveral, where the X-37 went from are in a totally different orbit and won't go anywhere near it.

You gotta remember, the planet is not perfectly round, so as it moves towards the equator it gets closer to the ground, as it then moves past the equator it appears to gain altitude. I'm no scientist but thinking logically usually helps..

I remember watching this as the Russian satellite was falling, it was sling shooting up and down for days before gravity sucked it to the ground

Has me almost thinking that it's in stable orbit and under full control and this is just our information source trying to make us keep thinking they are incapable of putting and maitaining an object in orbit???

The theorists in me coming out.....

SaneThinking

Is it just me, or is it gaining altitude again?

reply to post by TerrorAlertRed


Orbits aren't perfectly circular. When a satellite is orbiting, it's constantly falling and climbing. When it's coming down, it tends to fall farther, and start to get drag from the atmosphere, so every time it falls it falls a little farther, and when it climbs back up, it doesn't go quite as far.

The satellite is gaining altitude I think because of the way it orbits. I noticed this a few months back when I was watching another piece of space junk that was supposed to crash to Earth, they loose altitude and then gain it, depending on where it is in it's orbit.

Thanks for the explanation.

reply to post by j.r.c.b.

The East Coast is not a specified location as yet, by any means. More than likely as stated previously, it shall fall into the vastness of the ocean. I am quite sure Nasa as well as government officials are aware and have much more info than we. Hopefully Phage , or another of our resident genius , shall be by shortly to give an more informative evaluation of this failing albatross.

Well then . . . the guess I made is nothing but crap then. I did not even take the shape of the Earth and the satellite's actual orbit into consideration . . . that time of the day I suppose. Oh well . . . all for the best that it does not crash to Earth anyhow.

reply to post by DarthPhobos

You gotta remember, the planet is not perfectly round, so as it moves towards the equator it gets closer to the ground, as it then moves past the equator it appears to gain altitude.

Not exactly. It's that the satellite does not have a circular orbit, it's elliptical.
But also it is not being "tracked". The position and altitude displayed are calculated from its orbital elements.

reply to post by Phage


Honestly, how do you do that? It's like calling Dr Bombay

anyone wanna track it in real time?

www.n2yo.com...

reply to post by Phage


Thanks for clearing that up clever-dick!!

Looks like it's gaining altitude now? Did they get it under control?

Peace

reply to post by jude11


It is gaining altitude, but those are only calculations that have been made. The last time I watched this thing the satellite had crashed into the ocean and the orbital plots were still up there and going, based on where it should be.