There was a theory for quite a while that a meteor hit flight 800 off the coast of NY. Sounded kind of plausible, and more exciting than a mundane human screw up. But not as exciting as a stray Navy SAM.

The time differential of 12 hours could be caused by an AM/PM confusion, so I wouldn't rule out that the time of observation is that of the expected reentry of the Russian satellite.

... not to mention not knowing foot-pounds from Newtons (and thereby crashing a probe into Mars, no mean feat of cock-uppery), a mere inability to tell the difference between AM and PM is nothing...

If the cargo ship was still attached to the space station, wouldn't that be pretty substantial evidence that the timing WASN'T screwed up?

i remember from my piloting days that all these pilots use UTC or Zulu time which is the Greenwich Mean time for all you old timers out there. Any report would have to have that time on it so they should be able work out from there what time this thing decided to fall back to earth.

Quote: "If the cargo ship was still attached to the space station, wouldn't that be pretty substantial evidence that the timing WASN'T screwed up?" /Quote

Ummm. Has anyone heard from the international space station since this event?

That was no meteor...I believe it was a congressional test run for the U. S. DOJ's (Department of Just As We Please) head honcho Alberto Gonzales going down in flames. The next test run should (hopefully) impact the Bush White House.

Bushmageddon?