Mir Close Call

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• Previous message: Bill Moore: "Re: LEM's"

Hello all,

Was just playing around and noticed that Mir is going to have an unscheduled
visitor Saturday morning, June 7th, about 24 hours from now as I type this
(10pm Thursday, Pacific Daylight Time).  Using the following elements:

Cosmos 1456 Rk
1 14041U 83038E   97155.42741506 +.00000198 +00000-0 +11679-3 0 07115
2 14041 062.8476 261.2540 7426843 217.3502 055.3083 02.03608773104936

Mir Complex     32.7  4.2  0.0  1.6 v
1 16609U 86017A   97156.76960411  .00001429  00000-0  17645-4 0  3498
2 16609  51.6513 143.2255 0005085 124.7465 235.4665 15.59475348645270

the two will approach to within 5 km of one another on June 7th, 1997, at
7:10:47.7 UTC.  The Cosmos rocket will be about 4 km higher than Mir at this
time.  The close approach occurs over the south Indian Ocean near latitude 35
S, longitude 98.4 E.  Mir is ascending at this time toward the west coast of
Australia, while the rocket is descending toward Antarctica.  Because of the
"broadside" nature of this conjunction, even small propagation errors for
either satellite will have a big impact on the closest approach distance. 
--Rob

• Next message: Tristan Cools: "very very very low perigee"
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