Gentlemen,

Perhaps one of you satellite buffs can help me out. At approx 0115 6/20/06 (UT) (about an hour and a half ago), I saw a satellite from my back yard and perhaps one of you can help me identify it. My location is 26N 80W (Ft Lauderdale) and the object was traveling an approx course of 290-110 degrees. It passed my meridian at an elevation of about 50d above my southern horizon and appeared to be intermediate in magnitude between Spica and Jupiter (roughly mag = 0), which it came quite close to. It slowly faded in the earth's shadow at an elevation of about 030d, and an azimuth of about 100d. These figures are all strictly by eyeball, I had now way of making any precise measurements. I'm an experienced amateur astronomer and I've seen hundreds of satellites, but this one was remarkable for it's incredible speed. It was traveling between two and four times the typical angular velocity of any satellite I've ever seen, so fast that I at first thought it was a low-flying aircraft. However, I could see no navigation lights or hear any sound. The general appearance and fading in the east was consistent with a satellite, but the extreme speed suggests it was in extremely low earth orbit, perhaps about ready for re-entry. The appearance was typical of a very bright satellite, a featureless, unchanging white light. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.