Watch out below! Russian satellite set to hit earth TOMORROW poses 'very real danger', experts warn. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2560332/Watch-Russian-satellite-set-hit-earth-TOMORROW.html#ixzz2tRDZ4aNjHow accurate is that image of Cosmos 1220 used in it?
I thought the KH-11's where intentionally de-orbited and not allowed to decay. I believe the dates are not announced, just noticed as no longer being in orbit by amateur satellite trackers. So any date should be taken with a grain of salt. I highly recommend going though the seesat ( http://www.satobs.org/seesat/ ) archives in an attempt to pin down when they where de-orbited.
Kosmos 1220 exploded in 1982, so it's just one fragment (the largest?) of it that's decayed.Here's a more fact-based picture:http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/us-p.htm
Kosmos 1220 exploded in 1982, so it's just one fragment (the largest?) of it that's decayed.
Report of "flaming ball" sightings in Saudi Arabiahttp://www.al-sharq.com/news/details/211558
While on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KH-11_Kennan#KH-11_missions), I happened to see the decay dates for the following Keyhole-11 (KH-11) satellites: I also happened to see Cosmos 1220 marked with a decay date of June 20, 1982 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kosmos_satellites_(1001–1250)), even thought the website http://www.satview.org/lista_sat.php?cat=tle_decay says that Cosmos 1220 is expected to decay next month, leading me to suspect whether the decay date given on Wikipedia is disinformation too.