Decay of Lunar Prospector Athena 2 rocket
Alan Pickup (alan@wingar.demon.co.uk)
Wed, 7 Jan 1998 12:04:33 +0000
Despite suggestions that it could survive for a week, the final stage of
the Athena 2 rocket (the Orbit Adjust Module) which launched Lunar
Prospector has probably already decayed.
The available elsets for this are:
Lunar Prosp. Athena 2 r 198 x 141 km
1 25132U 98001B 98007.14943704 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 11
2 25132 29.2503 318.4165 0043284 221.6741 138.1067 16.38540501 18
Lunar Prosp. Athena 2 r 176 x 127 km
1 25132U 98001B 98007.27104898 .37608554 00000-0 45280-3 0 29
2 25132 29.2507 317.4414 0037737 224.5933 135.2144 16.45547360 33
Lunar Prosp. Athena 2 r 168 x 115 km
1 25132U 98001B 98007.33161476 .33442496 00000-0 22452-3 0 35
2 25132 29.2493 316.9477 0039940 224.6661 135.1235 16.49211591 46
Unless further elsets appear and prove me wrong, my analysis suggests
that decay occurred towards the end of the latter orbit over the Indian
Ocean at about 09:20 UTC near 9 deg S, 54 deg E.
Alan
--
Alan Pickup | COSPAR site 2707: 55d53m48.7s N 3d11m51.2s W 156m asl
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