The late demise of SL-6

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Here are OIG's elsets fhe final orbits of the decaying SL-6 rocket
(omitting elset #191 which was superceded for the same equator crossing
by elset #192):
C 2342 SL-6 r1   5.0  0.0  0.0  5.5 d            149 x 139 km
1 24801U 97022B   97219.82013957  .10566183  90361-5  16085-3 0  1896
2 24801  62.7592 218.6299 0007622 144.1268 216.0399 16.48108641 13630
C 2342 SL-6 r1   5.0  0.0  0.0  5.5 d            141 x 137 km
1 24801U 97022B   97219.88077021  .13488913  91708-5  15701-3 0  1903
2 24801  62.7569 218.3621 0002950 165.0855 195.0088 16.50047423 13648
C 2342 SL-6 r1   5.0  0.0  0.0  5.5 d            135 x 131 km
1 24801U 97022B   97219.94133471  .17958917  92441-5  14254-3 0  1921
2 24801  62.7634 218.1308 0002847 177.2699 182.8498 16.52407553 13653
C 2342 SL-6 r1   5.0  0.0  0.0  5.5 d            130 x 125 km
1 24801U 97022B   97220.00181041  .17860833  92470-5  10193-3 0  1936
2 24801  62.7579 217.8575 0004191 183.9029 176.2351 16.54572814 13669

I do not think it could have made it around to the next equator crossing
- I guess that it may have fallen near the southbound crossing at August
8.03 (00:45 UTC) when it would have been just SW of the Maldive Islands
in the Indian Ocean, near 70 degrees East longitude.

It clearly survived longer (3 orbits!) than I/SatEvo predicted, but I
gained some valuable data to improve SatEvo's performance for low near
circular orbits. Few objects have had such good elset coverage as they
fell through this height.

Alan
-- 
 Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707:   55d53m48.7s N   3d11m51.2s W    156m asl
 Edinburgh   | Home:      alan@wingar.demon.co.uk       +44 (0)131 477 9144
 Scotland    | SatEvo satellite page: http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/

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