[amsat-bb] Re: Chilean plane escapes flaming space junk

...

... space debris nearly hit a passenger plane !!

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=4122%C2%A7ionid=3510206

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/auckland/4008929a1

0.html

2. The reported "nearly hit" miss distance is reported

to be 8KM. Maybe it was 7KM or was it 9KM?

When we recently were alerted to a possible collision with one of our small satellites last week because the predicted intercept was going to be as close as 300 meters, one can understand the concern at 18,500 MPH collision.

But then we calculated the probability of two 1/2 meter size objects passing through the same point within 300 meters and were amazed that the probabilty of actually hitting each other was still less than one in a million..

Bob