Russian military satellite fragments fall into Pacific

PanARMENIAN.Net - Fragments of a defunct Russian military communication satellite, Molniya-1-89, fell into the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, April 7 night, RIA Novosti reported citing a source from the space agency.

“According to preliminary data, fragments of the Molniya satellite that did not burn up in the upper atmosphere reached the earth’s surface on Saturday at 3.17 am Moscow time [00:17 GMT] and fell into the Pacific Ocean,” the source said.

The U.S. Strategic Command said fragments of Molniya-1-89 satellite had to enter the Earth’s atmosphere at 4.16 am Moscow time [01:00 GMT] (plus/minus 3 hours). According to the time, the satellite fell in the Pacific at 23.5°S 205.3°E. However, the time range of six hours indicates that the fragments could fall very far from this area.

Russian military communication satellite Molniya-1-89 was launched in August 1996 from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia.

Molniya-1T series satellites were replaced by the Meridian-series in 2006.