March 23, 2014

Chinese Satellite Gaofen-1 Possible Sighting of MH370 Debris



Chinese satellite (Gaofen-1) sighting (above) on March 22-23, 2014 of possible MH370 debris. 

Compare with similar sized objects in same area of ocean as the US DigitalGlobe satellite sighting (below) of March 21, 2014 (see http://gentleseas.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/mh370-australian-and-othe-aircraft.html )




Area of possible MH370 debris indicating Chinese satellite sighting. 
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ARTICLE

Australia's ABC Online March 23, 2014 reports http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-23/increasing-hope-that-plane-search-may-be-fruitful-abbott-says/5339334 .

[Australian] Prime Minister Tony Abbott says there is "increasing hope" that the southern Indian Ocean search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 will prove fruitful, after Chinese satellites detected a large object that could be debris.
Authorities have begun a fourth day of sorties into the search zone about 2,500 kilometres south-west of Perth, where they are now also searching for an object that China identified yesterday as being 22 metres long and 13 metres wide.
The object was spotted about 120 kilometres south-west of two possible objects seen on satellite images taken on March 16 and announced by the Australian Government on Thursday.
The Chinese satellite images were taken five days ago, on March 18, by the high-definition Earth observation satellite Gaofen-1....
"New Chinese satellite imagery does seem to suggest at least one large object down there, consistent with the object that earlier satellite imagery discovered which I told the Australian Parliament about last week," he said...
Mr Abbott said two Chinese aircraft and two Japanese Orions will today join the fleet flying into the search zone, which was yesterday expanded to 36,000 square kilometres."

BACKGROUND
See a highly detailed description of Gaofen-1 launched April 26, 2013 at http://www.spaceflight101.com/long-march-2d-gaofen-1-launch.html and about future Gaofeng satellites at http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=30200.msg973464#msg973464
Pete

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