Re: New Horizons R/B

From: Jonathan McDowell (jcm@head.cfa.harvard.edu)
Date: Thu Feb 01 2007 - 14:14:20 EST

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    > From: "Brad Young" <brad.young@domain-engineering.com>
    > To: "SeeSat" <seesat-l@satobs.org>
    > Where did the r/b (28928) itself end up? I was reminiscing about the launch
    > a year ago here at work and was asked this question. I assume the first two
    > stages decayed but what about the power packed upper stage that got it going
    > so fast?
    
    28928 is 2006-01A, New Horizons. It is on a solar system escape
    trajectory and will flyby Pluto on 2015 Jul 14.
    
    28929 is 2006-01B, Centaur AV-010. It is in a 0.98 x 3.03 AU heliocentric
    orbit inclined 5.7 deg to the ecliptic.
    
    28930 is 2006-01C, Star 48B upper stage. It is on a solar system escape
    trajectory close to that of New Horizons and will flyby Pluto on
    2015 Oct 9.
    
    Uncataloged objects include:
    
    New Horizons despin weights (2), on similar solar system
    escape trajectory to 28930.
    
    Atlas AV-010 first stage, reached apogee of 188 km and fell in Atlantic.
    Centaur Forward Load Reactor halves, reached around 350 km and fell in
    Atlantic.
    Atlas V fairing halves, reached 150 km or so? and fell in Atlantic.
    
    So all objects were either suborbital or escaped from Earth's gravity,
    nothing remained in Earth orbit.
    
     - Jonathan McDowell  (with thanks to Alan Stern for supplying relevant data).
    
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