Debris From Satellite Falls Into Atlantic

A Soviet satellite broke up as it plunged into the Earth’s atmosphere today over Australia, and at least two chunks of debris continued in orbit before falling into the Atlantic Ocean, U.S. defense officials said.

At least one piece of the nine-ton Cosmos 1714 came down in the Atlantic several hundred miles due east of New York, said Del Kindschi, public affairs officer at the North American Aerospace Defense Command headquarters inside Cheyenne Mountain. Another chunk splashed into the ocean hundreds of miles directly east of Miami, he said.

NORAD initially reported the satellite burned up from friction as it re-entered the atmosphere at 4:15 a.m. PST, traveling at a speed of 17,000 m.p.h.

But later NORAD data showed that two or more pieces of debris continued in orbit, Kindschi said.

Unusual Situation

“It is kind of an unusual situation for (the debris) to continue in orbit and then go to the other side of a continent,” he said.

Kindschi said the orbiting debris continued on a northeasterly track after most of the satellite burned up in the atmosphere over Australia. The debris traveled over the northwestern tip of Alaska, the North Pole, Hudson Bay and southeastern Canada.

“That is when those remaining pieces--we’re not sure how many--came down off the East Coast of the United States, probably several hundred miles,” he said.

NORAD has been tracking Cosmos 1714 on radar screens since late December, but once it re-entered the atmosphere, NORAD’s responsibility toward the craft ended, officials said.

Tracks Objects in Space

NORAD keeps track of about 6,005 objects in space, about 4,000 of which are old rocket bodies and other “space junk.” About 500 miscellaneous objects fall from space every year, the vast majority burning up upon re-entry.

When Cosmos 1714 was launched Dec. 29, Soviet authorities released a statement saying only that they had launched another satellite in a series devoted to outer-space research.

NORAD officials did not know the Soviet satellite’s mission or its power source.

German scientists recently told reporters that an atomic reactor was the power source for Cosmos 1714, but other German scientists discounted that information.

In January, 1978, atomic-powered Cosmos 954 crashed in northwestern Canada, and Canadian officials had to clean up the resulting radioactive contamination of the environment.