-
-
-
- CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP)
- Rocket nose cone -- or hot tub? A NASA specialist traveled to the the
Texas coast Tuesday to identify what could be a piece of a French spacecraft.
Nicholas Johnson, an expert on orbital debris, is trying to determine if
the dome-shaped object found last week on Mustang Island is a nose cone
from an Ariane-5 rocket booster.
-
- The plastic foam object mysteriously vanished as quickly
as it appeared, but a local law enforcement officer came up with the key
to the mystery. He said if a salvageable item washes up on the beach, a
beachcomber named Barney Corey will find a use for it.
-
- NASA was alerted after the object was tracked down to
Corey's Port Aransas home, near Corpus Christi.
-
- Meanwhile, Corey is bummed out. The beachcomber was hoping
to use the object, whatever it is, for a hot tub.
-
-
-
- Mysterious Floating Cone-Shaped Item Grabbed
By MIB?
-
- http://www.foxnews.com/etcetera/022900/space.sml
-
- 3-1-00
-
-
- CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas
- State authorities have a UFO mystery on their hands " a tale involving
an unidentified floating object.
-
- Officials were attempting to identify the cone-shaped
item after it washed onto a Mustang Island beach. Then, a day after it
turned up, the object disappeared.
-
- On Friday, Gary Warmink, Frank Calsbeek and their wives
were hunting for seashells when they found the object, which was about
5 feet in diameter and 5 feet long.
-
- The object's outer covering was made of a dense Styrofoam-like
material. On the inside top end of the cone was the name "Aerospatiale
Matra," a French aerospace company.
-
- Nicholas Johnson, manager for orbital debris at NASA,
said Sunday the object could have been a detachable nose cone from an Ariane
5 solid rocket booster.
-
- NASA hoped to have the ID confirmed, but officials were
thwarted.
-
- Chris Lawrence, Nueces County Risk Management director,
said a Nueces County Parks and Recreation Department maintenance crew went
to the beach Saturday to pick up the object, but it was gone.
-
- Earl Bennett, a nearby resident, said two men in a black
and red Chevrolet Blazer put a cable on the object and hauled it away.
-
- Bennett said the men told him they were going to take
it to Nueces County Precinct 4 Constable Robert "Bobby" Sherwood.
Sherwood said he never got it.
-
- Officials from the Coast Guard also were unaware of the
item's location. Mustang Island Park Rangers said they didn't know, either.
-
- SIGHTINGS HOMEPAGE
- This
Site Served by TheHostPros
|