Get Your Tin Hats Out.

[moonraker558]

A crippled Russian spacecraft is likely to crash to Earth sometime on Sunday at an unspecified location.

But experts say the impact poses little danger because the spacecraft's 11 tonnes of toxic rocket fuel is likely to burn up as it passes through the upper atmosphere.

The aluminium fuel tanks of the Phobos-Ground probe will heat up and melt at the temperatures experienced by the spacecraft as it hurtles back to Earth. This will ensure that the fuel is either burned up or dispersed, Professor Richard Crowther, chief engineer of the UK Space Agency, said.

The spacecraft, which failed to be fired out of its low-Earth orbit after a problematic launch in November from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, was designed to land on Phobos, one of the two Martian moons. But it is now destined to break apart somewhere between 51.4 degrees north – encompassing southern England – and 51.4 degrees south.

Professor Crowther said it is unlikely that the Russian space authorities have retained any control over Phobos-Ground, which is about the size of a mini-bus and weighs 13 tonnes.

[mibn2cweus]

That pretty much maps out where I'll be doing come Sunday ~

http://www.n2yo.com/?s=37872

[wendilla]

d9flc7 after reading your reply to this post I wondered why you gave an arrogant answer such as( did you have a question. ) The object of this site is also for infomation of which I have learned loads of. I do a Spacestation sighting report for a few years now when sightings are over the UK and I don't get people asking What is my question. They all appreciate my posts. I notice you are a newcomer so if you keep being rude you will keep getting bad feedback and people won't reply to you.

[wendilla]

Sorry to hijack your post Moonraker but I see RED when people don't understand how helpful people are trying to be with information.

[boxtops]

wendilla, I couldn't agree with you more - that remark was unnecessary. Moony's post is informative - it was on the TV last night but hard to take in on a 2-minute feature.

[d9f1c7]

no offence intended, I guess after reading the post I was sort of waiting for the "punch line" of a question. Apologies.

[wendilla]

It's really moonraker that needs the apology .He was being very helpful in explaining the situation. There are a lot of people that have been on here for years and we all appreciate there information. You probably didn't mean to sound like you did but just thought I would let you know how I read it . No hard feelings lol.

[WyeDyed]

It's safe to come out now...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/...-environment-16491457

[wendilla]

Yes pretty safe now lol
PHOBOS-GRUNT DESTROYED: According to the Russian space agency and the U.S. Space Command, the Phobos-Grunt spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 15th shortly before 1 p.m. EST. So far, no photographs of the fireball or other debris have been submitted to spaceweather.com. Initial estimates of the final ground track suggest a re-entry in the south Pacific in the broad vicinity of Australia and New Zealand..

[Baldric]

I'll keep me hat on for a while just to be on the safe side

;o))