19 September 2007

There is a story in the news today about a possible meteorite that is reported to have landed in the Andes mountains of southern Peru on Saturday. The gas emanating from the crater have supposedly made hundreds of people sick. I am wondering it it might not have been a satellite or some other form of space junk that crashed carrying exotic chemicals. The USAF should have tracked something like that and been able to refute the meteorite theory unless it was a satellite that “wasn’t really there” or the US government is just trying to get out from under the liability issues involved with space junk landing and injuring foreign (or even demestic) civilians.

• Suspected Meteorite Causes Sickness from CNN
• Villagers fall ill after fireball hits Peru from MSNBC
• Scores ill in Peru 'meteor crash' from BBC

Followups

• Officials confirm meteorite but question sickness claims from CNN, 20Sep07
• Experts confirm meteorite crash in Peru: Doctors so far have found no evidence site sickened people from MSNBC, 20Sep07

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Also in the news today is a report that NASA has to replace seals on Space Shuttle Discovery before the next flight and that may delay the launch for an unspecified period of time. These are not the same seals that caused the explosion of the rocket launching Space Shuttle Challenger back in 1986. These seals have something to do with the landing gear and it sounds to me like they are seals designed to keep a lubricant inside of a pivot point.