Victoria 'Fireball' thought to heve been part of Russian Space Launcher.

Witnesses in the Australian state of Victoria reported seeing a fireball meteor on the evening of Friday 22 May 2020. A fireball is defined as a meteor (shooting star) brighter than the planet Venus. These are typically caused by pieces of rock burning up in the atmosphere, although on this occasion the Astronomical Society of Victoria believe it was caused by part of a Russian Space Launcher re-entering the atmosphere, noting the low angle and apparent speed of the object, which were inconsistent with an extra-terrestrial object. The fireball is thought to have been caused by one of the late stages of a Soyuz-2-1b rocket launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at about 5.30 pm Victoria time.

Fireball 'meteor' thought to have been caused by the re-entry of part of a Russian Space Launcher over Victoria, Australia, on Friday 22 May 2020. Paul Campbell/Twitter.

Extra-terrestrial objects large enough to cause a visible fireball enter the Earth's atmosphere several times a year, though unless they do so over populated areas they are unlikely to be noticed. They are officially described as fireballs if they produce a light brighter than the planet Venus. The brightness of a meteor is caused by friction with the Earth's atmosphere, which is typically far greater than that caused by simple falling, due to the initial trajectory of the object. Such objects typically eventually explode in an airburst called by the friction, causing them to vanish as an luminous object. However this is not the end of the story as such explosions result in the production of a number of smaller objects, which fall to the ground under the influence of gravity (which does not cause the luminescence associated with friction-induced heating).

 

 The launch of a Russian Soyuz-2-1b rocket from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on 22 May 2020. The fireball seen over Victoria, Australia, is thought to have been caused by one of the rocket stages from this launch re-entering the atmosphere. Roscosmos.

 

These 'dark objects' do not continue along the path of the original bolide, but neither do they fall directly to the ground, but rather follow a course determined by the atmospheric currents (winds) through which the objects pass. Scientists are able to calculate potential trajectories for hypothetical dark objects derived from meteors using data from weather monitoring services.

 

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Russian satellite crashes into house.

On Friday 23 December 2011 Russian Andrei Krivoruchenko was at home with his wife in the village of Vagaitsevo, in Ordynsk District, Novosibirsk, Siberia, when he heard a large crash. Investigation revealed a large hole in his roof, caused by a 50 cm titanium sphere which had apparently fallen out of the sky. This turned out to be a fuel tank from a Russian Meridian communications satellite, which had been launched in Plesetsk, Northern Russia, minutes before.

The hole in Andrei Krivoruchenko's roof.

The satellite was part of a communications network designed cover Siberia and the Russian Arctic and Far East. It was launched on a Soyez-2.1b rocket launched at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome which broke up seven minutes after takeoff, apparently due to a third stage rocket failure. Most of the debris is likely to have burned up in the atmosphere, but several pieces of landed in Ordynsk District, including the titanium sphere, an essentially cannon-ball shaped fuel tank.

The flight path of the doomed satellite.

It has been a particularly bad year for Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, who have lost string of satellites and probes to failed launches.

On 4 December 2010 a Proton Rocket carrying three Glonass-M navigation satellites (a Russian rival to the American GPS system) launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on the wrong flight path, failed to reach orbit, and eventually crashed into the Pacific 1500 km northwest of Honalulu.

The Glonass Satellite, as it should have looked.

On 1 February a Rokot/Briz-KM booster carrying the Kosmos 2470 Satellite, designed for creating detailed three dimensional maps and studying plate tectonics, was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome failed to reach its correct orbit after a second stage ignition failure. Roscosmos were unable to establish contact with the satellite. A month later a second system failure caused the satellite to move out of alignment with the sun, causing its solar power system to fail.

On 15 August 2011 another Proton Rocket from Baikonur carrying the Express-AM4 communications satellite, designed to cover Russia and Central Europe, failed to reach its correct orbit after the final stage failed to separate properly. The satellite reached orbit, but not in the correct position; it was apparently unable to deploy its solar panels with the final stage still attached, and communication was lost a few days later when its batteries failed.

The Express-AM4 on the launch-pad.

On 24 August a Soyuz U rocket carrying a Progress 44 supply vessel for the International Space Station, blasted of from Baikonur, but developed a booster problem 325 seconds after launch, causing the rocket to shut down and the satellite to fall back to Earth. This was a serious problem for the Space Station, as since the end of NASA's Space Shuttle program, the Soyuz rockets are the only ones capable of reaching the Station.

On 9 November the Fobos-Grunt interplanetary probe, intended to land on the Martian moon Phobos, blasted off from Baikonur, but suffered another booster failure and became trapped in low-Earth orbit. It is thought likely that the probe will fall back to Earth in February 2012.

The Fobos-Grunt Probe, as it was intended.

See also Mysterious object falls from the sky in Namibia and Space Age Archaeology.