BeppoSAX is down but there is uncertainty as to just when and where. The
following is my entire note on this, lifted from my Decay Watch page:
_____________________________________________________________________
Object: #23857 = 96- 27 A = BeppoSAX
Beppo Satellite per Astronomia a raggi X
Italian-Dutch X-ray astronomy satellite launched on April 30, 1996.
It was switched off on April 30, 2002 and will make an uncontrolled
reentry.
(Diameter : 2.7 m Length : 3.6 m Launch mass : 1400 kg)
Notice prepared: 2003 Apr 30 06:55 UTC
Decay predictions:
Source Prediction made Predicted decay at Latitude Longitude
UTC UTC deg deg
SCC Apr 26 09:45 Apr 30 09:56 +-2d 3.9 N 70.3 E
SCC Apr 26 15:23 Apr 29 11:35 +-2d 2.0 N 1.7 W
SCC Apr 27 23:50 Apr 29 19:29 +-1d 1.9 N 3.9 W
SCC Apr 28 19:27 Apr 29 14:18 +-12h 3.0 S 124.2 W
SCC Apr 29 14:38 Apr 30 02:57 +-9h 0.0 90.5 W
SCC Apr 29 20:49 Apr 29 22:18 +-1h 3.8 N 91.5 W
SCC Apr 29 22:47 Apr 29 22:01 +-7m 4.0 N 130.0 W
SatEvo Apr 26 18:20 Apr 30 14:55 +-1.2d
SatEvo Apr 27 17:25 Apr 30 08:20 +-19h
SatEvo Apr 28 19:15 Apr 30 05:35 +-12h
SatEvo Apr 29 19:00 Apr 30 02:45 +-5h 2.0 N 118.1 W
SatEvo Apr 30 06:55 Apr 29 22:25 +-70m 1.4 N 40.7 W
Final elsets:
BeppoSAX 195 x 191 km
1 23857U 96027A 03119.48066962 .06986978 -36857-4 14226-2 0 6513
2 23857 3.9524 357.0909 0002972 259.6479 100.3277 16.29956364386193
BeppoSAX 169 x 169 km
1 23857U 96027A 03119.78601475 .25031881 -37595-4 19941-2 0 6525
2 23857 3.9525 354.3668 0000010 271.5083 89.2266 16.38867537386243
Note: As I indicated in my previous note, fresh elsets and updated
SCC predictions were slow to appear for this object. Indeed, the final
two elsets and three predictions were all posted on the OIG site after
my note yet the elsets themselves had epochs before it. The first elset
shows BeppoSAX running 1.4 sec late on my own prediction, while the
second has it 6.4 sec early. This behaviour indicates that drag
increased much more quickly than expected, but probably in line with
the higher geomagnetic and auroral activity over the latter part of
the April 30.
My own estimate is that this may have decayed over Brazil near the
middle of the SatEvo-predicted orbit:
BeppoSAX 142 x 141 km
1 23857U 96027A 03119.90724435 .94057752 11975+2 13664-2 0 96527
2 23857 3.9522 353.2596 0000705 273.7149 86.2770 16.49334592386267
Unless further elsets appear, my window of uncertainty is more than
one orbit wide, much less than SCC's (almost ubiquitous!) 7 minutes.
I note that the latest analysis, Report #23 issued at 00:00 CET today,
on the BeppoSAX Reentry Page (http://www.asdc.asi.it/bepposax/reentry/)
gives an estimated decay window from 22:48 until 00:57 UTC, with nominal
impact at 23:36 UTC.
_____________________________________________________________________
Alan
--
Alan Pickup / COSPAR 2707: 55.8968N 3.1989W +208m (WGS84 datum)
Edinburgh / SatEvo Home Page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/
Scotland / Decay Watch: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/
*
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