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JSC PUBLIC f:FFm~ Fax ; 713-483-4876 l P.02
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Statement R.ga~in.g COsmos 96
I':On 26 August 2003 , I was contacted via 'phone by a Ms. leslie Kean with an
inquiry 'regarding the reentry of the CosrOos 96 satellite on 9 December 1965.
She wanted to know if the time and loca~on bf reentry of Cosmos 96 on that date
were known and jf any other satellite was known to have reentered on that date.
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A quick search of the U.S. Satellite Catalog revealed that Cosmos 96 was the
only cata loged object to have reentered on 9 December 1e65, I so informed Ms.
Kean . I did provide Ms. Kean copies of it few pages on Cl,smos 96 and related
spacecraft from a book I authored in the'197 .0 ~ 5, before coming to~ork at NASA.
The book is titled Handbook of Sovjet Lyh~r 'and ,Planeta...oc.fxPlorMioQ , pub lishecJ
as Volume 47 of the Science and Technology Series , American Astronautical
Society, 1979.
In response to a request by Ms. Kean, I les~arched the NASA Orbital DebriS
Program Office data files for tracking da(a (aka two-line element sets from the \
U,S, Space Surveillance Network) on Cosmos 96' (U.S. Catalog Number 01742);
however, no data fo r that object were found . I later contacted Air Force Space
Command and received historical tracking data for Cosmos 96 (Attachment 1).
USing these data and an Air Force Space Command software package , I was
able to reconstruct the possible flight path (grou nd traCk) of Cosmos 96 on 9
December 1965, I sent to Ms. Kean on , 0 October an ~mail (Attachm~' nt 2)
containing two graphics depicting the only possible southbound pass 0 Cosmos
96 on 9 December' 965, if it had not already reentered the atrrt>spher . No pan
of Cosmos 96 could have landed in Pennsylvania in the local afternoon of 9
December 1965. ' .
Ms. Kean informed me that she had subsequently acquired information from 000
that Cosmos 96 had actually reentered earlier in the day. I received .'lletter from
Ms. Kean, dated 6 November 2003, which included a copy of t~e Doqletter. Ms.
Kean's letter also included a copy of a NASA Form 135, datedl26 January 1968 1
which referred to NASA Frag ology Fi les .:: I in,formed Ms. Kean that I was
unaware o f ::\ny files or program by that nam9.
The NASA Orbital Debris Program Office did no!'exist in the 19Gb,s, and it
contains no other information related to the FOIA request.
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