George, Kevin: (and our Russian friends!) Kosmos-2434 was, I think, a light payload for the Proton-M/Briz-M. I haven't crunched the numbers... it was put first in a 274 x 4991 km x 48.8 deg orbit, then in a 415 x 35534 km x 46 deg orbit which is similar to the usual Proton/Blok-DM transfer orbit, and object 32374 was left in this orbit. Then it later turned up in GEO. I am assuming that object 32374 is the DTB (additional propellant tank) from the Briz-M, and that a single long circ burn by the Briz-M put the payload in GEO. If so, we should expect the Briz-M to be found in a GEO-like orbit with a period of 1434-1440 min or so, and clearly 32375 is being reserved for this. The profile is similar to the 2001-14 Ekran/Proton-M/Briz-M launch which left the Briz-M in a higher 1469 min orbit from which the payload descended... maybe that's why they haven't found it yet. Jonathan ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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