Reply To: Falcon 9 upper stage re-entry this morning

Forums Spacecraft Falcon 9 upper stage re-entry this morning Reply To: Falcon 9 upper stage re-entry this morning

#628181
Nick James
Participant

Here’s the video from my UK004D camera which points NW. The hazy sky was brightly moonlit but the re-entry is detectable as a faint object emerging from the tree at the bottom left. It brightens and leaves a strong ionisation trail but there is no sign of breakup this early in the track.

https://nickdjames.com/Spacecraft/2025_022Y_reentry/UK004D_20250119_0343_ndj.mp4

This is the re-entry prediction:

https://aerospace.org/reentries/62878

The stage should have been actively de-orbited from its very low orbit (around 300km) but actually decayed naturally in an uncontrolled way. The COPV tank seems quite robust and has survived re-entry previously so one more thing to worry about.