Jeff Findley wrote:
"Chuck Stewart" wrote in message
news
But the main point, which thousands of forum and
blog pundits seem to have missed and keep on
missing with a vengeance, is that it's perfectly
*feasible* for the ball to return at some later
date and impact ISS with a relative velocity
orders of magnitude greater than the one the
cosmonaut imparted to it.


From what I remember from my orbital mechanics classes, I don't see how this
could happen, especially since ISS's orbit is pretty much circular.

It could happen, over a long period of time, by differential nodal
regression, since the orbits would have slightly different average
altitudes.