78 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
78 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
#: 91 S0/EasyPlex
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18-Dec-87 18:53 MST
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Sb: APky 12/14 0155 Strange Lights
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Fm: Executive News Svc. [72135,424]
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By The Associated Press
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People from Montana to Mississippi reported vivid streaks of light in the
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night sky when a disintegrating rocket used to launch a Soviet satellite burned
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up in the atmosphere, putting on a fireworks show with "spectacular, beautiful
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colors."
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Scores of startled people called police, the news media and air traffic
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controllers to report the phenomenon late Saturday.
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"We weren't really scared. If it had landed, it would have been a different
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story," said Joe Beverly, a policeman at Marion, Ky., who saw reddish-orange
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lights while driving with his family.
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The light show was caused by the re-entry of a Soviet rocket body that had
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been used to launch the Raduga 21 communications satellite on Thursday, said
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Maj. Alex Mondragon of the U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colo.
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"Something re-entering like that can be mistaken for a missile coming in"
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but the space command knew it wasn't because it had tracked the object since
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launch, Mondragon said. The agency uses a network of radar, telescopes and
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sensors to track about 7,000 man-made objects in orbit, he said.
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Trackers spotted the falling rocket over the coast of western Canada and
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followed its southeastward course across the United States past the Florida
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Gulf Coast, Mondragon said.
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"There were some initial indications that debris may have landed, but nobody
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has found anything," Mondragon said Sunday. "Realistically, we would have
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received a report by now if anything had hit the Earth."
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He said the likelihood of finding any debris is "fairly remote. Only 5
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percent or less of a space object typically survives re-entry."
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"I've never seen anything like it. It was spectacular, beautiful colors,"
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said Paul Kellenbarger of Pea Ridge, Ark., who ran outside with his wife to
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watch. "It looked like a helicopter, with red and green lights."
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Some callers to WPSD-TV in Paducah, Ky., reported blue lights while others
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reported reddish-orange hues and white lights. Sam Burrage, executive producer
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and anchorman at WPSD, said the station received 25 to 35 calls about the
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lights from viewers in western Kentucky, southeastern Missouri and northern
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Tennessee.
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Some callers reported seeing more than one object flaming across the sky.
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"They say it was two main lights, a reddish orange color," said Bart Ryan of
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KBLT radio near Galena, Kan.
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"I've had about 30 calls up here about it," said Todd Glaese, an air traffic
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controller at the Fayetteville, Ark., airport. "It was something to see, and I
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had a good view."
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"They had tails of fire, traveling from west to east ... they lit up part of
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the ground," said Steve Matt, an Arkansas Game and Fish Commission officer.
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Tom DeMont of Siloam Springs, Ark., said he saw two sets of lights, "maybe
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100 feet long, twin sets of light."
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"We had about 30 people out Christmas caroling and we saw these lights going
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across the sky. ... I thought they were three jet planes flying in formation
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with their lights on but there was no sound," said Lincoln-Lancaster County
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(Neb.) Planning director Garner Stoll.
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Mark Brockeveldt was working at the Lincoln, Neb., airport when he saw four
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immense lights approach. He said the lights were elongated and bathed in a
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white and gold light with reddish-gold tails like comets. As the objects
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crossed the airport, one dropped below the other three and its light went out,
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he said.
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"I've worked out here for nine years and have never seen anything like it,"
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said crew chief Mark Shoemaker at the Lincoln airport. "It was freaky."
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The National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle got calls from "almost every
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state east of the Rocky Mountains" to Indiana and Mississippi, said spokesman
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Robert Gribble.
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In October, a display of lights over the West was attributed to a Soviet
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rocket re-entering the atmosphere and pieces fell to earth in California.
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Weld County, Colo., sheriff's dispatchers were deluged with calls by people
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who thought they had seen a plane going down in flames.
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In Paducah, Burrage said a woman from Charleston, Mo., reported seeing
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objects that seemed to be 100 to 200 feet above her.
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"She was in her car and just sat there dumbfounded," Burrage said. "She said
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the lights were unlike anything she'd seen before. She said it had an oval
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shape to it and there were lights beaming from it.
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"She said she just sat there and froze."
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Copyright 1987 by the Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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