Dabrowa Knach (University Tromsö, Norway) will deliver a talk on the topic „Multi-Camera Triangulation of the February 19th 2025 Falcon 9 Re-Entry Debris”.

Abstract:

Observations and modeling of the atmospheric re-entry of spacecraft are important for characterizing fatality risk and understanding the atmospheric deposition of spacecraft materials. This study investigates the February 19th 2025 atmospheric re-entry of the Falcon 9 upper stage, which was captured by 43 individual allsky meteor cameras over central Europe. Multi-camera observations allowed the monitoring of fragment position as a function of time with ≈ 170 m position resolution. The debris was tracked between altitudes of 85 km and 36 km, and was observed initially as two fragments, breaking up to over 20 fragments when the optical signature disappeared over Poland.

The obtained dataset of fragment positions can be used in future modeling efforts.