From Don Croner comes word that an extremely large truck lost its muffler near Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, creating a traffic jam. According to the Mongolian Highway Patrolman at the scene, above, "Road hazards must be quickly attended to, before they are misidentified as UFOs by credulous Westerners. Its in the manual."
In a situation where over 2 million animals have died, you would think people might have better things to think about. That story has been buried, while the "Mongolian UFO" story gets the ink (or pixels, as the case may be).
Thanks to Don, who has been trying to get the word out that Mongolia needs help, for bringing such disparities to everyone's attention.
UPDATED: Thanks to an observant reader in Australia, we also now have the following:
"Two metal objects, one cylindrical and a smaller round one, crashed near Buren Soum in the Tuv province of Mongolia, in an empty field, on 19 February. They are parts of an American Delta II rocket stage (nr. 35939, 2009-052C) that launched the military STSS Demo 1 & 2 satellites in September 2009. Both articles linked above say that the larger of the two objects is 7.5 meters in diameter, but in this photo it looks more like 7.5 feet. It is marked with the serial number '02728.' (The military STSS program is intended for space-based detection and tracking of missiles.) In the months leading up to the February 19 orbital decay over Mongolia, the fall of the rocket stage was followed by amateur satellite trackers. Based on their final orbit determinations just hours before the decay, the decay must have occurred near 3:32 UTC on February 19."
In a situation where over 2 million animals have died, you would think people might have better things to think about. That story has been buried, while the "Mongolian UFO" story gets the ink (or pixels, as the case may be).
Thanks to Don, who has been trying to get the word out that Mongolia needs help, for bringing such disparities to everyone's attention.
UPDATED: Thanks to an observant reader in Australia, we also now have the following:
"Two metal objects, one cylindrical and a smaller round one, crashed near Buren Soum in the Tuv province of Mongolia, in an empty field, on 19 February. They are parts of an American Delta II rocket stage (nr. 35939, 2009-052C) that launched the military STSS Demo 1 & 2 satellites in September 2009. Both articles linked above say that the larger of the two objects is 7.5 meters in diameter, but in this photo it looks more like 7.5 feet. It is marked with the serial number '02728.' (The military STSS program is intended for space-based detection and tracking of missiles.) In the months leading up to the February 19 orbital decay over Mongolia, the fall of the rocket stage was followed by amateur satellite trackers. Based on their final orbit determinations just hours before the decay, the decay must have occurred near 3:32 UTC on February 19."
Looks like it may have been part of an American Delta II rocket. :)
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