Russians Lose Spy Satellite Hours After Launch

The Russians have lost a satellite and this is disturbing because it may be as low as 205 miles above ground. It would seem that conflicts with air traffic and also the location appears to be the North Atlantic.

Russia's top military and space official launched a search Tuesday for a missing military satellite that apparently was put into the wrong orbit shortly after its launch. The Russian defence ministry confirmed that it had lost sight of the craft -- a dual-use vessel that can draw a three-dimensional map of the Earth and locate the precise positions of various targets. The incident came just a month after President Dmitry Medvedev sacked two top space officials for a similar setback and delivered another humiliating blow to Russia's much-maligned space industry. The seriousness of the situation was underscored late Tuesday by reports that the defence ministry had set up an urgent joint task force with the Russia's space agency to look for the missing craft.

hisz.rsoe.hu...

But the satellite did not enter the proper orbit, with some Russian reports suggesting its current flight path brings it as low as 205 miles (330 km) above the ground, AFP reported.

www.cbsnews.com...

Gulp. How the bleep does someone "put a satellite into the wrong orbit?"

This could be disturbing on quite a number of levels. As in, did they really lose it or is iit a trick? Is it in a decaying orbit? Did someone shoot it down or capture it?

I hope the people who know all about re-entry and burn and decayed orbits get here soon to tell us what could happen if it really just got away from them.

Deja Vu

Sorry, but this was already covered, good find though

Sorry, I did a search and the search engine did not return any results so I posted. After posting I just did another search and found it. You can delete mine.

Obviously those things should be closely watched. But then again, how to you catch a falling satellite?