Soviet Satellite Falls in Remote Area of Pacific

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — The 10-ton Soviet satellite Cosmos 1871 fell to Earth on Monday, 10 days after its launch, plunging harmlessly into what a U.S. official called the “middle of nowhere” in the Pacific Ocean.

U.S. military and space officials who tracked what may have been a spy satellite as it fell out of its polar orbit said they doubted that any large fragments of the satellite remained after it re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and slammed into the ocean.

The satellite splashed into the Pacific at 12:27 a.m. PDT, said officials at the North American Air Defense Command in Colorado Springs.

“We had a visual confirmation of its re-entry,” Lt. Col. Ivan Pinnell said. “It was north at 18.89 degrees by west at 176.20, which puts it in the Pacific about 3,000 miles north of New Zealand.”

The impact point was less than 1,000 miles west and south of Hawaii.

Pinnell 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.

The Soviet news agency Tass had reported Sunday that the school bus-sized satellite, launched Aug. 1, would re-enter the atmosphere Monday and fall to Earth.