greer%utdssa.dnet%utaivc@utspan.span.nasa.gov (02/08/91)
This is from America Online's online news service. Usually they credit AP, UPI, TASS, XINHUA or somebody, but this one has no initial credits. ++++++++++++++++ SALYUT-7 SOVIET SPACE STATION PLUNGES THROUGH ATMOSPHERE OVER ARGENTINA COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO (FEB. 7) - The Soviet space station Salyut-7 plunged through Earth's atmosphere over Argentina early Thursday and some of its pieces may strike a lightly populated area, according to the U.S. Space Command. The Salyut-7 and its attached Cosmos-1686 cargo spacecraft together weigh 40 tonnes and are 28 meters (31 yards) long, about the size of a railroad car. Navy Commander Charles Connor, a space command spokesman, said the craft entered the Earth's atmosphere at 0344 GMT, traveling at about 27,200 kilometers (17,000 miles) per hour. (According to the Soviet news agency Tass, the Soviet space control center in Kaliningrad, near Moscow, clocked their reentry at 0347 GMT. The space station plunged over the Argentine pampa several hundred kilometers (miles) west of Buenos Aires, Tass reported.) It was not known whether some of the debris would burn up on their journey through the atmosphere, or survive and fall to earth. Cmdr. Connor said the U.S. Space Command expected the debris to reach earth, which he said was rare. "Usually in satellite break-ups they just don't pass through the atmosphere, but the size of this one and with its shields, we certainly expect it to fall" to earth, he said. The Salyut-7, powered by solar energy and chemical batteries, does not contain any radio-active substances. The seventh and last version of the first permanent Soviet space station, the Salyut-7, launched April 19, 1982, was used in nine cosmonaut missions before technical problems forced it into retirement four years ago. Cosmos-1686, a new model of experimental station, was docked to the station September 17, 1985. Debris from two spacecraft have fallen to earth. In 1978, radioactive debris from Soviet satellite Cosmos-954 struck a lightly populated area of northern Canada; in 1979, pieces of the U.S. Skylab space station fell on unpopulated parts of Australia. +++++++++++++++++++ End of copied article _____________ Dale M. Greer, whose opinions are not to be confused with those of the Center for Space Sciences, U.T. at Dallas, UTSPAN::UTADNX::UTDSSA::GREER "It's not a question of on whose side God is on. The question is, are we on God's side? And I'm confident we are." -- J. Danforth "Not-to-put-too-fine-a-point-on-it,-but-don't-you- sleep-better-at-night-knowing-he's-just-a-heartbeat-away-from- Air-Force-One?" Quayle