DANGERS FROM SPACE
Space Debris
Something fell out of the sky and landed in Texas
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Photograph: Steve Liss/Corbis

People gather around a spherical object, which may be a hydrogen containment tank, on a chicken farm in Nacogdoches, Texas, USA in 2003. The object fell from the disintegrating Space Shuttle Columbia

SOURCE: The Guardian UK

Related Links:
Space Debris - Round Sphere
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Photograph: Enver Essop/EPA

Theodore Solomons sits next to the metal ball that he saw fall from the sky on a farm close to Worcester, about 150 kilometres outside of Cape Town, south Africa in April 2000. A second metal ball dropped out of the sky the following day on a farm approximately 50 kilometres outside of Cape Town. Astronomers said the balls, which were white-hot when they landed, could be parts of a decaying satellite

SOURCE: The Guardian UK

When is a Meteorite not a Meteorite?
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Photograph: Mike Derer/AP

A mysterious metallic object that crashed through the roof of a New Jersey family's home in January 2007 was not a meteorite after all. Scientists say it is a stainless steel alloy that does not occur in nature and is most likely orbital debris, perhaps remnants of a satellite, a rocket or some other spacecraft component

SOURCE: The Guardian UK

Genesis 'Lands' in Utah
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Photograph: Reuters

The Genesis spacecraft capsule after it crashed in the Utah desert in September 2004. The $64m mission was designed to collect charged solar particles on delicate wafer-like plates and return them to Earth for examination. The wafers were believed to be so fragile that a helicopter-assisted parachute landing was planned but the parachute failed to deploy sending Genesis hurtling to Earth at 200 mph

SOURCE: The Guardian UK

Genesis capsule crash-lands in Utah

Sep 8, 2004
Genesis capsule crash site (NASA) The sample return capsule from NASA's Genesis spacecraft crash-landed in the Utah desert Wednesday after its parachutes failed to deploy. The capsule, containing solar wind samples collected by the spacecraft during its mission, was designed to deploy a drogue parachute and later an parafoil, allowing it to glide slowly and be retrieved in midair by a helicopter. However, neither parachute appeared to deploy and the capsule hit the surface at the Utah Test and Training Range west of Salt Lake City at about 12:00 pm EDT (1600 GMT). Project officials said a press conference Wednesday afternoon that the capsule hit the ground at about 310 kmph, nearly twice the speed originally estimated. The capsule is partially buried in the ground and suffered extensive damage. None of the pyros designed to release the capsule's parachutes fired, officials said, raising suspicions that a battery problem first noted with the capsule in late 2001, shortly after launch, may have kept the parachutes from deploying. Workers plan to remove the capsule from the crash site later today and attempt to salvage the samples contained inside.

Genesis capsule crash-lands in Utah - Space Today

NASA Mission Suggests Sun and Planets Constructed Differently
Genesis Findings Solve Apollo Lunar Soil Mystery
Genesis: Search for Origins | JPL | NASA

NASA Says: Space Debris
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Photograph: NASA/AP

This photo provided by Nasa shows unidentified possible small debris recorded with a digital still camera by astronaut Daniel Burbank onboard the space shuttle Atlantis in September 2006.

SOURCE: The Guardian UK

Something fell out of the sky and landed in Australia
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Photograph: AP

A US Customs official inspects the largest piece of wreckage from the downed Skylab at the San Francisco International Airport, California, in July 1979. The one-ton piece wreckage was found in Australia

SOURCE: The Guardian UK

Russian Space Station Mir Re-Entry
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Photograph: Rob Griffith/AP

The Russian Space Station Mir burns up as it enters the Earth's atmosphere over Nadi, Fiji, in March 2001. After 15 years of service in outer space, Mir made its re-entry to Earth

SOURCE: The Guardian UK

Space Debris - Fuel Tank
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Photograph: NASA/AFP

The external fuel tank of the orbiter falls back to earth after detaching from the space shuttle Discovery in July 2005. Engineers are analysing these photos as part of the extensive imagery data being gathered to understand falling debris during the shuttle's launch 

SOURCE: The Guardian UK

Recovery of Gemini V Booster
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Photograph: NASA/AFP
Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Booster Recovery
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Photograph: NASA/AFP
Ariane 5 solid rocket booster recovery
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Ariane 5/ATV booster recovery
Photograph: ESA

Over 90% of space debris falls into the oceans or burns up. The Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) is designed as the Progress cargo, to burn at its re-entry.

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ATV Re-entry and burnup
Photograph: ESA

Video of ATV Reentry NASA/ESA
ATV1 "Jules Verne" Reentry Observing Campaign

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Antoine Bavandi, ESA/ESTEC, obtained these still frames with a Sony 3CCD camcorder,
owned by Mike Taylor of Utah State University. Composite: Peter Jenniskens. 
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David Sliski of Dexter and Southfield Schools captured the ATV
reentry in this digitial still image from the DC8 aircraft. 
NASA DC-8 Team Captures Hayabusa Spacecraft Reentry
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Youtube Link

NASA - Hayabusa Spacecraft Returns Asteroid Artifacts From Space

Scientists involved with the first space mission attempting to sample asteroid surface material and return to Earth, have confirmed presence of particles collected from a small container aboard the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Hayabusa spacecraft.

On June 14, 2010 (local time), Hayabusa landed in the remote Woomera Test Range in South Australia, concluding a remarkable mission of exploration -- one in which NASA scientists and engineers played a contributing role.

Initial research from an electron microscope reveals about 1500 grains identified as rocky particles, and judged to be of extraterrestrial origin from the asteroid. Their size is mostly less than 10 micrometers. Handling these grains requires very special skills and techniques. JAXA is developing the necessary handling techniques and preparing the associated equipment for further analyses.

NASA - Hayabusa Spacecraft Returns Asteroid Artifacts From Space

Stardust Reentry 
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Youtube Link

NASA - Stardust: A Mission With Many Scientific Surprises

The primary goal of the Stardust mission was to collect samples of a comet and return them to Earth for laboratory analysis. Comets are ancient bodies of frozen ice and dust that formed beyond the orbit of the most distant planet. They were expected to contain materials that the solar system formed from, preserved in ice for billions of years. When the international team of 200 scientists began examination of the returned particles, we found that the particles were indeed ancient building blocks of the solar system but the nature and origin of the particles was quite unexpected. Before the mission, there were very good reasons to believe that we knew what comets would be made of and there was a general expectation was that the particles collected from comet Wild 2 would be mainly be dust that formed around other stars, dust that was older than the Sun. Such particles are called stardust or pre-solar grains and this was the main reason why the mission was named Stardust. [/color][/size][/quote]

NASA - Stardust: A Mission With Many Scientific Surprises

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