Decay watch update: December 19
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Sat, 19 Dec 1998 18:01:14 +0000
OIG appears to have been unreachable since ~noon UTC today, so I have no
word on the final elsets for #25499, the decaying auxiliary motor from
the Cosmos 2350 Proton launch. The failure also means that there are no
elsets yet for the two new Iridiums that were launched today by a
Chinese Long March rocket (launch was at 11:30 UTC).
Another decay notice was published by OIG before it went AWOL:
Object Notice issued Predicted decay
UTC UTC
#25499 = C 2350 aux motor Dec 19 00:43 Dec 19 10:56 +-7h
The latest (final?) elset is:
C 2350 Prot deb (aux motor) 944 x 94 km
1 25499U 98025E 98353.36489583 .02420477 93517-5 29501-4 0 1356
2 25499 47.2036 205.0145 0616251 85.2847 278.1724 15.15594482 6017
The drag term is far too low, but the elset appears to show it running
12 minutes early against the prediction I posted yesterday. My own
prediction following receipt of this elset was for decay at December
19.44 (10:39 UTC) or possibly one orbit later.
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
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