Unknown 00595A probably is 99057GB

From: Ted Molczan (molczan@home.com)
Date: Thu Apr 20 2000 - 15:30:58 PDT

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    I believe I have identified 00595A among the 99057C debris elements recently
    issued by NORAD:
    
    1 26289U 99057GB  00111.14561990  .00018544  00000-0  47696-2 0   127
    2 26289  98.5132 187.8537 0044275  18.7600 341.5210 14.49591578  5688
    
    The orbit agrees very well with the observations of 00595A reported between 4
    and 10 April, especially the later ones, because the shorter time interval
    reduces the uncertainty due to drag.
    
    Precessing 99057GB's elements back to the epoch of latest orbit of 00595A:
    
    1 90001U 00595A   00101.89523148  .00024710  00000-0  64069-2 0    05
    2 90001  98.5220 178.5313 0045226  38.6691 321.8377 14.49244679    09
    
    yields a RAAN of 178.5188, and an argument of perigee of 46.9027, in excellent
    agreement with 00595A's values.
    
    The mean ndot/2 between the elsets is 0.00018751 rev/d^2, which is excellent
    agreement.
    
    I estimated 00595A's standard magnitude as 7.7. Russell Eberst reported a 0.5 s
    flash period on 4 April, but it was steady during subsequent passes. If 99057GB
    proves to be observable, with about the same std magnitude, then I believe the
    identification will be confirmed.
    
    Ted Molczan
    
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