Mysterious debris washes ashore in Norway

An odd piece of debris has washed ashore in Salmon Bay, in the northeastern part of Norway, with Cyrillic writing on it. The official explanation is that it's part of the second stage of the Kosmos2486 rocket launched June 7th, just four days prior to the find.

That doesn't really seem to add up however. The piece appears to have a circumference of 9 meters, with a possible oxygen bottle and fire extinguisher attached to it, as well as signs of corrosion. The object is approximately 3 meters wide, and 3.5 to 4.5 meters long (9.8 feet wide, by 11.4 feet to 14.7 feet long).

It's been identified as possibly the escape hatch from a Tu-16, or a Tu-95. The color is consistent with a Tu-22, or Tu-160.

Some interesting as well as mysterious metal parts with Russian text have emerged from sea in the Salmon Bay, in Finnmark, in the extreme northeastern part of Norway, on Jun. 3.

According to the Norwegian TV2 website, the official explanation is that the wreck part belongs to the second stage of a rocket called Kosmos2486. The rocket was launched on Jun. 7 from Tlesetsk in Russia barely four days before the mysterious debris appeared on the surface of the sea.

theaviationist.com...

it looks russian

reply to post by Zaphod58

Interesting stuff.

Your second linked image clearly shows a code number 14С738. I've flipped and inverted the image and pointed it out here:


In the discussion on the launch of the Soyuz-2-1B (on June 7) in the NasaSpaceFlight [dot] com thread, they are talking about the fairing and what type it may be and "Stan Black" says in his post (second on the page I've linked, and posted before the washed-up object was found):

The previous Persona was encapsulated in a 14С738 fairing, whereas all Fregat launches have been 81КС. The question is, are they the same; different designation for the same thing, or is one for Fregat and does not include the transfer compartment?

So, whether that washed-up object is from this launch or not -- though the timing makes it pretty likely it was -- it seems pretty obvious that it's a section of a 14С738 fairing and isn't from some more ordinary aircraft.

There's an interesting video where the reporter is actually standing by the upper section of the rocket while it's on the launch pad. Skip to 1 min 33 sec to see it. The launch follows shortly after, by which time one hopes the reporter had vacated the area. Here's the Video at tz zvezda. It's in Russian but never mind that. The visuals are good.

Just a note: the "С" in the 14C738 is not like an English C at all and is pronounced pretty much as we'd pronounce "S".

reply to post by JustMike


I had a feeling that it might be from a rocket, but some of the external parts looked very similar to what you'd find on an aircraft (what looks like a ram air door, and possibly a sensor), so there was just enough doubt to make it more interesting.

Just a bit more confirmation. If we go to the Russian MOD gallery of images for that rocket here, image number 12 (of 35) shows some good detail of the rocket and the upper fairing section. Here's a cropped image from it:


Now if we blow up a part of it and compare it side by side with the first "mystery object" image, we get this:


I think there are enough points of reference to make a good case that the debris found washed up in Norway is from that rocket fairing.

reply to post by JustMike


Great work! Man, I love this site when it comes to mysteries like this. It never takes long to solve them.

reply to post by Zaphod58

Oh absolutely. I agree. At first look I was trying to match it up to an aircraft as well. It was only after I'd studied the code numbers that I decided to use them as a basis for more searching and that turned up what I gave above.

I'm glad you raised it as a matter of discussion. Was pretty interesting.

Just another observation. On that second image it has some specs data written that apparently refer to pressure limits. 350 kg/square cm and also 525 kg/ square cm. I don't know if these are "service" values and "max" (fail limit) values but I'd asume the higher one relates directly to the lower one in some way. I can't tell what these specs are for because the writing before the numbers is badly obscured by the metal retainer strapping.

One sq inch is ~6.45 sq cm, and one kilo is ~2.20 lbs, so that 350 kg/cm2 equates to around 4,966 PSI. (It's actually a tad more but that's near enough.) 525 kg/cm2 works out at 7,450 PSI.

Whatever, those pressures are pretty -- ummm -- impressive!

reply to post by Zaphod58

I've learned a huge amount of stuff from your threads, man. Much appreciate them and your expertise in your specialized field.

Just a closing image of that rocket, this one taken when it was still in prep and horizontal:

The image is from here at kosmonavtika [dot] com. (The B&W writing on the left reads as "Archangelska Oblast", which means in the district/region of Archangelsk. So, nothing secret or startling. The bit on the right is just "Russia 24" which I guess is a news channel.)

Anywho, that little round external unit is clearly visible in the image. Also, the man on the ground there to the right allows us to get the scale very well.

Originally posted by Zaphod58
reply to post by JustMike

 

Great work! Man, I love this site when it comes to mysteries like this. It never takes long to solve them.

Really very impressive that is some detective work. I too love this site.

I thing Russian should give ATS a thank you.

Speaking of the Russians, here's a little on the methods of searching something like this.

Copy and paste the following into a search engine: 14C738
In this case, the "C" is just an English capital "c".
In Google, the first thing it turns up for me is a site called colorhexa [dot] com, specifically "#14c738 Color Information". In fact, there's not much of great relevance in the whole first page of results. You have to go to page 2 before you find anything.


Now copy and paste this: 14С738
This time, the "С" is Russian and it's equivalent to a capital "s".
Your search results should be quite different. The first I get is a Russian site. It's quite a hideous one and hard to follow, but at least it means the computer is reading the character as Russian. The second is the NasaSpaceFlight [dot] com forum where they were discussing the June 7 Soyuz rocket launch and also the rocket's 14С738 fairing. In that site, being true space and rocket buffs, they do refer to it correctly with a Russian "С" and not an English "C".

So, for Russian technical stuff it's often helpful to use the correct characters and not just English ones that happen to look the same. To us, "С" and "C" look exactly the same, but to a computer they are quite different.

The same goes for other languages, of course. But as the Russians are an important partner in space programs these days then I thought it worth mentioning.

Originally posted by JustMike
In fact, there's not much of great relevance in the whole first page of results. You have to go to page 2 before you find anything.

And people say things don't exist if they're not on page one of Google results.

That number 1 is the way Germans write the number, perhaps other nations do as well, just a thought, perhaps its something to do with the old, now defunct East Germany?

Perfect.

A mystery with a solution. I love it when this site works the way it should.

Fast too. Which is great this time because the "Experts" on the ships of Zeta Reticuli didn't get a chance to get in here and blather on. lol

Originally posted by pikestaff
That number 1 is the way Germans write the number, perhaps other nations do as well, just a thought, perhaps its something to do with the old, now defunct East Germany?

what? yes I always wrote 1 like that... and I am German... but I have never seen somebody in a western country write 1 different... everywhere 1 is written like that except in other alphabets like in Japan where it would be 一.

Or maybe I just dont understand you

Originally posted by heineken
it looks russian

Good guess.

Slavic writing.

Originally posted by JustMike
Just a bit more confirmation. If we go to the Russian MOD gallery of images for that rocket

For the win!