Soviet ‘Mystery’ Satellite Falls to Ocean in ‘Middle of Nowhere’

A mysterious 10-ton Soviet satellite re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and plunged into “the middle of nowhere” in the southern Pacific today, 10 days after it was launched, U.S. officials said.

U.S. military and space officials tracked the satellite, known as Cosmos 1,871, as it fell out of its polar orbit until it splashed into the Pacific Ocean 3,000 miles from New Zealand at 12:27 a.m. PDT.

The official Soviet press agency Tass reported Sunday that the satellite, launched Aug. 1, would re-enter the atmosphere today and fall to Earth in the southern Pacific, most likely near Antarctica.

Lt. Col. Ivan Pinnell of the U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs said it was not immediately known how much debris from the satellite survived re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, but he said it never posed a danger.

“If you look at a map, you’ll see it hit in the middle of nowhere,” Pinnell said. “It’s open sea and nothing was bothered.”

The satellite was launched Aug. 1, possibly by an SL-16 booster, into the type of retrograde polar orbit favored for spy satellites.

Sauders Kramer, a Soviet space expert in Washington, said it was not clear what type of satellite it was. “It’s a mystery,” he said.

The Tass report said Cosmos 1,871 weighed 10 tons and carried scientific equipment designed to continue outer space exploration.

It also carried “a radio system for an accurate measurement of orbital elements, a radio telemetric system for transmitting back to Earth data about the functioning of instruments and scientific equipment,” Tass said.

James Oberg, an expert on the Soviet space program, said the Soviet Union delayed announcing the launch by 51 hours.

“They may have failed to reach their planned orbit,” he said. “The fact that it took them 51 hours to announce the launch . . . is extraordinary. It’s highly characteristic of a major malfunction.”