Was There Ever a Doubt?

Those satellites are falling out of the sky all the time. They usually burn up in the atmosphere like meteorites but, occasionally a hunk or two makes it to the surface, usually falling into the ocean. That's not surprising, since more of the Earth's surface is covered by oceans than by land. It is my understanding that there are government people who keep an eye on both natural and man made objects that are likely to impact Earth anytime soon. They can pretty much tell when and where an object is going to hit and, if it appears to represent a serious threat, they can shoot it down with a missile or something. They wouldn't have to destroy it, just whack it hard enough to alter its course.

The reason I know about this is that, in 1988, the year my daughter graduated from high school, I was awakened in the night by my dogs barking frantically. We lived next to a sheep pasture in those days, and the owner had been experiencing coyote raids, so I had agreed to help him keep an eye out. I opened the window to sweep my light across the field, but instead saw what I thought was a large flaming meteor streaking across the night sky. The dogs had seen it too, and it appeared to be what they were barking at. It made a sound, a hissing sound, which it likely what drew the attention of the dogs in the first place. It looked close, really close, and appeared to be heading for an impact in nearby Duncan Bay. "This is it", I thought, "We're all going to die.", Just before it went over the horizon, the object broke into three or four parts, which I thought was a good sign. There was no discernable impact, which surprised me. The dogs stopped barking as soon as the object passed out of view, and we all went back to sleep.

There was an article about it in our local paper a couple days later. Turned out that it wasn't a meteor at all, it was a Russian satellite, and they knew about it well in advance. It came down in Hudson Bay Canada, which was right where they had predicted. Shipping had been warned to stay out of the impact zone, so no harm was done. I don't know why it appeared to be much larger and closer to me than it really was. I understand that a lot of guys see a meteor and think it's a space ship. I, on the other hand, saw a space ship and thought it was a meteor. How weird is that?