Apr 15 1979
From The Space Library
The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) issued a fact sheet on satellite decay predictions by its Space Defense Center, watching over more than 4,500 man-made satellites in orbit around the Earth. The Tracking and Impact Predictions (TIPs) gave time and position for large items such as payloads and rocket motors that might survive reentry and impact on Earth; for smaller objects likely to burn up without reaching the ground, the center would compute only a probable date of decay. Predictions would depend on many variables but were necessary under a 1971 pact between the United States and the Soviet Union that both nations would help identify objects that might reenter over the other's territory; TIPs would prevent mistaking a reentering object for an incoming warhead and triggering warning networks. (PAO, Peterson AFB, Apr 15/79)
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