GeoSat - Space Junk Series #04 Traditional Cache

There is always an imminent threat of "something falling from space"...

This series commemorates space junk that fell to Earth off various satellites during the past few weeks. Extreme measures were exhausted to FTF these marvelous historic pieces for your enjoyment before muggles got to them, so please treat them with awe and respect. All space junk pieces have been scrutinised for outer space viruses, bacteria, other contaminants, ionisized Psychlodinian dust and ear worm eggs. Those that showed any threat were incinerated for your safety, except for the SPUTNIK piece.... It is Russian. It does not want to melt...

Each piece also warrants some edification on its source

GEOSAT

The U.S. Navy GEOdetic SATellite, GEOSAT, was launched on 12 March 1985, into an 800-km, 108-deg inclination orbit, carried an altimeter that was capable of measuring the distance from satellite to sea surface with a relative precision of about 5 cm. After a classified mission for the Navy, GEOSAT's scientific Exact Repeat Mission (ERM) began on 8 November 1986 after it was manoeuvred into a seventeen-day repeat orbit. When the ERM ended in January 1990, due to failure of the two on board tape recorders, more than three years of precise altimeter data were available to the scientific community. During the ERM, GEOSAT was in a 17.05-day repeat orbit. In this orbit the satellite passes the same point on the Earth every 17.05 days, which offers the opportunity to determine the mean sea levels at these points containing information on the local gravity, and to study sea level changes containing information on ocean variability. The studies made on GEOSAT data are numerous and the GEOSAT data set is regarded as a milestone in both satellite oceanography and satellite geodesy

(Adapted from contents credit to NASA)