Molniya rocket observation by David Bishop

From: Mike McCants <mike_at_comshare.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 1995 12:02:59 -0400
Yesterday David Bishop posted an observation of a satellite that
passed near a galaxy he was looking at.  I have identified the
object as 74 56D, the Molniya 2-10 rocket:

1 07382U 74056  D 95088.86057228  .00069886 -49316-6  10065-3 0  3839
2 07382  62.4717 350.2833 6959628 282.8006  13.3438  2.77483788 33950

***  95 Mar 28   Tue evening *** Times are EST ***

NCAT 7382 74 56D    IMag 4.0  ElDy  0 M2  698
  U  MAG    HGT ALT AZI  HRS MIN     R  A    DEC  RANGE
150 10.0   8835  58 136    8  54   10 46.6  17.7   9254
151 10.0   8718  58 137    8  55   10 48.1  16.9   9154
152 10.0   8600  57 137    8  56   10 49.5  16.2   9054
153  9.9   8362  55 138    8  58   10 52.6  14.6   8853
154  9.9   8120  54 139    9   0   10 55.7  12.9   8653

There are about 550 objects in Allen Thomson's latest file that
have eccentric orbits and a mean motion between 2 and 4.  This
particular one is interesting because it recently dipped very
low into the Earth's atmosphere.  However, the lunar and solar
gravitational perturbations that caused this reversed in sign
and decreased the eccentricity, so the drag is ten times
smaller and it will be quite a few more years before it reenters.

October drag .000500:
1 07382U 74056  D 94251.30760600  .00049687 -15925-6  25513-3 0   796
2 07382  62.1874  32.9751 7524804 278.9061  10.6420  2.03261401 29249

January drag .006500:
1 07382U 74056  D 95019.24263989  .00655499  30443-4  74867-3 0  2656
2 07382  62.3995   7.4804 7167890 281.3808  11.6707  2.49924464 32086

February drag .004400 and decreasing:
1 07382U 74056  D 95031.01445116  .00435950  32301-4  53056-3 0  2884
2 07382  62.4051   4.7274 7092030 281.6074  12.6539  2.59886133 32380

March drag .000900 and decreasing:
1 07382U 74056  D 95067.84634899  .00091661  20331-4  89569-4 0  3553
2 07382  62.4487 355.6533 6986938 282.3177  13.2237  2.74297239 33371
1 07382U 74056  D 95110.74000406  .00049545  44900-6  78237-4 0  4108
2 07382  62.4786 344.6628 6940411 283.2803  13.1669  2.80008178 34567

Mike
Received on Fri Apr 28 1995 - 16:57:54 UTC

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