Metal sphere identified

From: Daniel Deak (dan.deak@sympatico.ca)
Date: Fri Jan 23 2004 - 00:06:15 EST

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    Hi Ed and list,
    
    Ed wrote :
    "One sidebar of one article mentions that in April 2003 a
    metal sphere 75 cm in diameter fell in a sugar cane field in
    the south of Guatemala."
    
    I don't know if this sphere has been linked to a specific reentry but I found 
    its origin thanks to archived SatEvo decay lists and OIG elsets.
    
    The spherical tank surely comes from a Centaur IIA stage from the Atlas IIAS 
    rocket that launched the Intelsat 806 comm sat on Feb. 28, 1998 (USSC #25240). 
    Like Delta 2 second stages, this tank is probably an helium tank located at the 
    bottom of the stage :
    http://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/PAO/html/centaur.htm
    
    Alan predicted its reentry at 15h34 UT on April 27, 2003 with an uncertainty of 
    +/- 2 h. But he was right on when he estimated the decay location as being close 
    to Honduras. Here is the OIG elset I used in my investigation. At the time of 
    decay predicted by Alan, the object was right on target !
    
    ATLAS 2AS CENTAUR R/B    Decayed: 2003/04/27
    1 25240U 98014B   03117.33588757  .17643539 -15810-4  91280-3 0  9095
    2 25240  22.4458 322.2292 0104969  21.1631 339.6159 16.24084768137794
    
    
    
    -- 
    Daniel Deak
    representant, projet spatial Starshine
    L'Avenir, Quebec
    
    COSPAR site 1747 : 45.7275°N, 72.3526°W, 191 m., UTC-5:00
    
    Site en francais sur les satellites:
    French-language satellite web site : http://www.obsat.com
    
    
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