Mysterious East Coast Boom Was Falling Russian Rocket

reply to post by Zaphod58


Can't they track the possible trajectory of these objects? they seem to be able to do with everything else, not an exact science I'm sure but still possible none the less. It just seems fishy to me.

reply to post by alyosha1981


In orbit it's easy to track them and figure out where they're heading to. Once they're in the atmosphere, you have a MUCH larger margin of error, because now you have air resistance effects to take into consideration.

In orbit, that piece that's sticking up on one side doesn't effect it at all. Once it's back into the atmosphere, it's going to cause it to tumble, and move off to one side or the other. So instead of going in a straight line where it's easy to figure out, it's now going 1000 miles off to the South.



[edit on 3/30/2009 by Zaphod58]

reply to post by Zaphod58


Good point, as we all know their not perfect. I'll retain my distrust on this one for now mixed with a healthy dose of belief in things that can't be explained away so easily as falling Russian boosters

Doesn't terminal velocity come into play here. Seems to me that a falling object wouldn't be traveling at the speed of sound, or would it?

reply to post by The Undertaker


Good point, any physics people care to add to that?

Second line( nothing intelligent)

reply to post by The Undertaker


It's travelling at 17 THOUSAND miles per hour to achieve orbital velocity. It HAS to be supersonic until it gets lower into the atmosphere where the air is thicker. Terminal velocity comes into play in the lower atmosphere. During reentry the air is so thin that it doesn't create a lot of drag on the object until it's around 100,000 feet or so.

The space shuttle is more aerodynamic, but they're deliberately trying to slow down the entire way down by turning, and aerobraking. But at 20,000 feet they're still fast enough to leave a double sonic boom over Canaveral. It's going to take a LONG time to slow down to terminal velocity, you're not going to see it go from orbital speed, to terminal velocity quickly.

[edit on 3/30/2009 by Zaphod58]