Explanation of Fireballs, Ghost Rockets and the Dangers They Present

The increased sightings of fireballs or ghost rockets as some call them, should come as no surprise to anyone. What they are is simply space trash left in orbit from space missions and satellite placements. Since we first began sending rockets into space to present, the Earth now has more than a million pieces of trash orbiting it from very small pieces to huge engines and satellites. 

The so-called mysterious space ball that recently crashed in Namibia, Africa is nothing more than a part from discarded space equipment that has been orbiting the planet perhaps for decades.

Depending on what the trash is made of, the velocity of reentry and size will determine its appearance and characteristic to the observer. Most space trash will appear as bright white or green balls of fire racing across the sky while others will appear as red or orange objects. The alarming aspect of all this trash floating around the planet is that the chances of getting hit by a piece of it is drastically increasing all the time, as we place more in orbit almost on a daily basis.

The other concern is the chances of a manned space mission being obliterated by getting hit by trash is a very high possibility. The slightest particle hitting one of our spacecraft would have devastating results. Every human made article in orbit travels at very high speeds which would enable a particle the size of a grain of sand to easily penetrate the hull of any space craft.

Thus, while fireballs or rocket sightings may be nothing of interest from a mystery point of view, it should be from a scientific and safety aspect since lives may be lost because of what they are.

We now have such a great amount of trash in space the possibility of some of it hitting airplanes while in flight is also a distinct possibility. If an object such as the Namibia space ball were to have made contact with an airliner during flight the plane would have been instantly destroyed.

Flight 447 that went down over the Atlantic in 09 could have developed problems because of being hit by a minute particle of space trash. The crash is still at present listed as a mysterious crash. Recent finds suggest the plane was in aerodynamic stall with the pilot pulling the nose up. The trouble began with airspeed sensors giving inaccurate readings because of ice formation in the pitot tubes which prevented air speed sensors of forward facing air pressure. All that seemingly went wrong on this flight, ultimately causing the crash could have been the result of the plane being struck by a minute particle of space trash. Such an impact would have similar results as what has been concluded here.