> > Wow. Is that low enough to produce a visible glow in the thin air at that altitude? > That has happened with previous Molniyas. They may also lose solar panels etc, which delays their decay. As the number 3-44 implies there are lots of them - Nov.2003 Satellite Situation Report list 163 (+6 debris) under the Molniya name. 99 of the satellites had already decayed then. The perigees of the (successful) Molniyas are close to the southern apex. Alan Pickup alerted SeeSat-L on this decayer in a mail on Jan.04 http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2004/0045.html, and again on Jan.21 http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2004/0191.html and his web page http://www.wingar.demon.co.uk/satevo/dkwatch/ had updated elements. I was also able to get fresh elements from OIG before I went to look for it, and found it 67.1 s early on the 10.5 h old elset Jan.22 http://www.satobs.org/seesat/Jan-2004/0207.html. Those that had a period less than 716 min in November were: 11474 79-070A MOLNIYA 1-44 CIS 07/31/79 287.4 22633 93-025A MOLNIYA 3-44 CIS 04/21/93 542.8 11057 78-095A MOLNIYA 3-10 CIS 10/13/78 614.9 11007 78-080A MOLNIYA 1-42 CIS 08/22/78 622.7 7276 74-026A MOLNIYA 2-9 CIS 04/26/74 640.6 20646 90-052A MOLNIYA 3-38 CIS 06/13/90 650.7 22309 93-002A MOLNIYA 1-85 CIS 01/13/93 695.6 20583 90-039A MOLNIYA 1-77 CIS 04/26/90 696.7 12156 81-009A MOLNIYA 1-49 CIS 01/30/81 700.1 16393 85-117A MOLNIYA 3-27 CIS 12/24/85 712.7 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Frequently Asked Questions, SeeSat-L archive: http://www.satobs.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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