Russian Mars Probe Hysteria

[Bruce Pickett <SHEA136@KGV2.bems.boeing.com>]

 Earlier, someone noted that the Australian prime minister contributed to
 hysteria when he called for Australians to be on the alert for falling space
 debris. Turns out that our space agencies may have given out the wrong
 information. The following is taken from Aerospace Daily.

   Alexander Chee
   The Boeing Company, Seattle WA

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 U.S., Russian trackers dispute Mars 96 reentry sequence

      MOSCOW - Russian space officials have concluded that the Mars 96 probe
 separated from its Block D2 kick stage as planned, but fell into the Pacific
 after a few orbits Saturday because the kick stage had not boosted it into its
 proper intermediate orbit before the separation.
      However, the U.S. Space Command continued to insist it had tracked Mars
 96 as a single body until it crashed off the coast of Chile Sunday, although
 the U.S. space trackers were continuing to analyze their data. If the Russians
 are correct, the U.S. warning Sunday that the out-of-control spacecraft
 threatened Australia came after the probe and its 200 grams of plutonium were
 already on the ocean floor.
      "We cannot disprove the Russian account," a spokesperson for the U.S.
 Space Command. "We have sensors around the world, but there are areas where we
 do not have coverage."