North Korea’s New Satellite Flies Over Super Bowl 50 Stadium An Hour After The Game Ended
North Korea's recent satellite reportedly passed over Super Bowl 50 just an hour after the game between the Carolina Panthers and Denver Broncos ended.
A tech watcher confirmed the occurrence in an email to the Associated Press Monday.
"It passed almost directly overhead Silicon Valley, which is where I am and where the stadium is," said Martyn Williams. "The pass happened at 8:26 p.m. after the game. I would put it down to nothing more than a coincidence, but an interesting one."
The game between the Panthers and Broncos at the Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California ended at around 7:25 p.m., with the American football team based in Denver defeating the Panthers in a 24-10 contest.
An astrophysicist added that the passing of North Korea's newest satellite coincides with identified tracking figures from a previous satellite launched by the country in 2012. The said satellite was the only satellite launched by North Korea that popped up on the official satellite of the North American Aerospace Command (NORAD).
"Kwangmyongsong 4 did pass over that part of California at 8:27p.m. PST at an altitude of 480 kilometers," said Jonathan McDowell of Harvard-Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics, as noted by Independent Tuesday.
He added, "I calculate it was 35 miles west and 3000 miles up as it passed overhead heading almost due north."
According to reports, the newest satellite launched by North Korea has NORAD catalog number 41332, while the previous satellite, Kwangmyongsong 3-2, has NORAD catalog number 39026. These satellites are reportedly dubbed as Earth observation satellites.
McDowell also said that four objects from North Korea's previous satellite can still be traced in their orbits. These include the satellite itself, the final phase of the Unha-3 missile and two other small pieces of debris.
"It will stay up for a few more years. There's no evidence that the spacecraft ever transmitted any signals. If it did work, I suspect it was for only a few hours, if at all," he said.
