Genesis Fireball

[Greebe]

On Wednesday morning, Sept. 8th, NASA's Genesis space capsule will streak
over Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Utah, returning samples of the solar wind
to Earth. Sky watchers within 100 miles of the reentry path might be able
to see the fireball in broad daylight. The best place to be is northern
Nevada, where the fireball is expected to be brightest.

http://www.spaceweather.com

[SpiralDragon]

i read about that... should be an intresting sight...

[Ribbit]

Is this the capsule they're hoping to catch with helicopters?

[SitFlyer]

Originally posted by Ribbit
Is this the capsule they're hoping to catch with helicopters?

Yes

[SitFlyer]

Genesis go SPLAT

Apparently, the drogue chute never deployed and the capsule plowed into the desert, this morning

[cjolley]

Someone @cnn said it hit at about 100mph.
Might there be some salvagable results, given the soft soil it landed in?

I hope so
chuck

[GT98]

OUCH!

[cjolley]

[cjolley]

Uh Oh.

It wasn't immediately known whether the cosmic samples had been destroyed. NASA officials believed the fragile disks that held the atoms would shatter even if the capsule hit the ground with a parachute.

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040908_981.html

chuck

[Jon P. Inghram]

Well, at least it impacted in a cool looking way. And since everything made it to the ground they'll hopefully be able to figure out what went wrong and learn something from the mission, even if just enginering data.

[SitFlyer]

I think the Martians are responsible, in some way

[mmp121]

hmmm, I wonder why the chute didn't open...



The disks in question. I think its extremely unlikely that they survived.

[GT98]

To add a little humor to the situation:

[SitFlyer]

ROTFLMAO

[Greebe]

That's odd... looks like Roswell to me... Whoa momma, flashbacks of '47