The Vandenberg Air Force Base told Kings County Sheriff's deputies the object was most likely a fuel tank that detached from a communications satellite owned by Iridium, a satellite communications company. The company confirmed to officials the object was, in fact, from one of their satellites that launched into space in the late 1990s and slowly re-entered Earth's atmosphere, the sheriff's office said in a statement to Fox News."The purpose of this particular tank was to store fuel used to change the orbit of the satellite in space," the Kings County Sheriff's Office said.
Iridium said the tank needs to be examined before they can officially confirm it belongs to the decades-old satellite.
"We need to see it. We may never be 100 percent certain," spokesman Jordan Hassin told the Fresno Bee, adding it has several satellites in low-Earth orbit.
According to Hassin, this is the first debris reported from the satellite after it re-entered Earth's atmosphere.
posted 10-19-2018 01:00 PM
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