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About the collision and the resulting destruction in February 2009 of the Iridium 33 U.S. satellite vs. Russian satellite Kosmos 2251 - I would like to suggest that media outlets actually consult various Iridium press releases on their website, iridium.com, then click on Breaking News to view "Iridium Satellite LLC Media Statement. (please note - U.S. DoD website)
For your info, one of its websites states that the company is privately held.
http://www.iridium.com/about/directors.php "Board of directors"
Dan Colussy, Michael Boyd,Tyrone Brown,Terry Jones,Alvin B. ("Buzzy")Krongard,Steven Pfeiffer,Herb Wilkins, Sr.
Tom Ridge
Mr. Ridge is former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, where he organized and oversaw a combined 22 federal agencies employing 180,000 staff. Secretary Ridge also served as two-term Governor of the State of Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2001. Prior to becoming Governor, he was elected to Congress in 1982. Born in Pittsburgh's Steel Valley, Secretary Ridge earned a scholarship to Harvard and graduated with honors in 1967. After his first year at The Dickinson School of Law, he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served as an infantry staff sergeant in Vietnam, earning the Bronze Star for Valor. He was the first Vietnam combat veteran elected to the U.S. House, and was re-elected six time
The story below appears on WABC and CNN.Com
Hot metal crashes through N.J. business
JERSEY CITY (WABC) -- A chunk of burning hot metal crashed through the roof of a Jersey City business this morning.
The metal was said to have fallen off some equipment at a nearby business, Reliable Wood.
The hunk of metal made a two-foot square hole in the roof of the business, Al Smith Moving at 33 Pacific Avenue, at around 9 a.m.
The metal has two holes in it and was reportedly so hot that workers at the business couldn't touch it for a half hour.
Nobody inside the business was injured.
The FAA sent their unit from Teterboro Airport and determined the object was not from a plane.
Jersey City's mayor and other city officials also responding to the scene. For a while it was not clear where the object came from.
The business is located in an industrial section of Jersey City. Workers there speculated that the object could have come from a passing plane or from space.
In the past, objects that were initially believed to be from planes have turned out to be projectiles catapulted from the ground.
In 2007, a mysterious piece of metal landed in a Bayonne home.
Initially, police believed it fell from a plane. But FAA inspectors who went to the scene determined it was not an aircraft part. Instead, the piece of metal was suspected to have flown off of light rail tracks located near the home.
Reliable wood products officials claim their equipment is routinely inspected but metal fatigue could have caused the freak event. They add the piece was hot from the friction created in the process of chopping wood into mulch.
The metal was intially a source of mystery but once its origins were located everyone was feeling blessed no one was hurt.
