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

Originally posted by shaneslaughta
anyone wanna track it in real time?

www.n2yo.com...

Yep. TY. I sure am. I have been tracking it for a while now. Just hope it doesn't come anywhere close to land.

reply to post by CALGARIAN


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

Nudge, Nudge, Wink Wink...

your welcome.
a side note i would just like to point out that their are three objects....two of which are undefined in the search. they are labeled only object a,b. you can trach them on an almost identical path as the satellite.

www.n2yo.com...

open the search results in new tabs to compare.

Im thinking its damaged and has lost pieces, i got a feeling its a catastrophic failure. wonder if its a nuclear fueled vehicle?

I will be watching this......the current track takes it directly overhead me in roughly 20 minutes.

maybe a photo op? kinda cloudy out but ill try if i see anything.

reply to post by shaneslaughta

There are not three objects. You've just zoomed out so that the satellite shows up three times on the map.

reply to post by Phage


ummm no, thats not what im talking about... its this

www.n2yo.com...

reply to post by shaneslaughta

Oh.
In that case they are likely to be second and third stage of the rocket.
Or other pieces of the launch package.

reply to post by Phage


they fell back to earth already and were recovered. i read that on a few pages. it might have been something launch related but i just cant help think how odd it is that they are on same trajectory.

i personally its either breaking from a complete failure or it was Taken Down.....i care not to speculate further on that though,

www.heavens-above.com is doing tracking on the satellite also. It's due to pass by us in the Caribbean in a few minutes. Will go outside and see if I can see it. If it's tumbling, I wonder if it will look similar to an irridium flare.

reply to post by argentus


I would think that it would be quite a rapid flashing or glinting effect while its streaking by really fast.

i got my camera ready for when it comes my way.....just in case.

reply to post by shaneslaughta

Everything reaching orbit in a given direction and speed will have the same orbit. Not really anything to make it break up into large pieces. I'd lean toward separation debris.

Side note, with a perigee of 500 km, it's not coming down any time soon.

It's going to pass right by me as well on the east coast of FL, however, it's completely cloud covered here.

Evildead on the first page of this thread www.abovetopsecret.com... is saying there's breaking Norad news .
NORAD says North Korean missile appears to have launched 'an object' into orbit.

Originally posted by Phage
Side note, with a perigee of 500 km, it's not coming down any time soon.

Nope, that thing'll be there a while. Hopefully it doesn't do something else unexpected.

I just started tracking this. I don't like that it's out of control, and it's on the east coast. I live on the east coast. It's no longer over the water, and is on land. I hope it doesn't crash.

reply to post by shaneslaughta


Perfect clarity here, but we didn't see it. heavens-above had it crossing Jupiter just outside of Orion from our view here. Nada. Magnitude was unknown, but couldn't have been much.

ETA: Does anyone know if it carries extended solar panels? Seems like that is what is most reflective on tumbling satellites.

reply to post by CatrionaBeldame

"Out of control" just means it's tumbling. It's in a fixed orbit at a high enough altitude so it will be up there for a very long time. Nothing to worry about.

reply to post by argentus

Only if it catches the sun. Its in Polar orbit so it may or may not. If it does you might see something like a neon blinka-blink, blinka-blink... as multiple facets turn over and over. Has to be above the rim of the shadow of the earth.

It seems like the elevation is dropping rapidly in the last few minutes.
I think?

reply to post by BlueAjah

And it will do so for a while then it will start to climb again. It is an elliptical orbit.

reply to post by Phage

Okay. Thanks, Phage. That's good to hear.

would laugh if it was actually a nuclear weapon and they just put a bit of spin on it to make people think it was out of control