Since this was a new launch profile which USSPACECOM was not expecting, the have completely screwed up with assigning everything ! Last week i was e-mailed a copy of a Russian launch announcement which gave details of the five burns completed and then to be completed by the Briz-M stage. Briz-M used one burn to reach LEO at ~56.6 deg inclination. Burn 2 raised apogee to ~4,000 km and reduced inclination to 50.3 deg. Burn 3 went into GTO at 48.8 deg, at which point the rocket stage's external propellant tank was discarded. That is what USSPACECOM has been tracking all the time as "Gorizont 33" (26372). Still chugging away, Briz-M performed a fourth burn to enter a geosynch drift orbit - just below a true GEO - where the satellite separated. An orbit below 1,436 min is required to allow the satellite to drift to 145 deg E where it is to be operated. And for its final trick, Briz-M did a small burn to remove itself from the deployment orbit and presumably get rid of residual propellant, reducing the risk a little (or not so little) "bang" sometime in the future as vapour pressure from the excpanding residual propellant would have ruptured the stage. So, we are looking for three object from this flight. Gorizont which should be found manoeuvring slightly as it approached 145 deg E, Briz-M in a slightly lower orbit (presumably 26373) and the propellant tank which I am sure is what has had its orbit assigned to Gorizont as 26372 for the last week. Note that the orbits for 26377 and 26372 are virtually identical - I guess its the same object with the orbit taken at differnet times. Isn't it good to know that the safety of the western world relies upon the accurate tracking of The Mountain's computer ?!! :-) :-) :-) Phillip Clark On Wed, 14 Jun 2000, Ron Lee wrote: > Gorizont 33 Briz-M external tank 34990 x 371 km > 1 26372U 00029A 00165.20170867 .00001355 00000-0 26543-2 0 250 > 2 26372 48.7628 306.7981 7194646 1.7614 40.1667 2.32673139 153 > DS SL-12 R/B 36009 x 35500 km > 1 26373U 00029B 00165.00460346 -.00000017 00000-0 00000-0 0 10 > 2 26373 1.0590 317.5126 0060364 72.2590 297.4510 1.00397355 109 > UNK 34990 x 370 km > 1 26377U 00029C 00165.92168859 .00001351 00000-0 26543-2 0 12 > 2 26377 48.7606 306.6022 7194794 1.9365 283.2360 2.32675209 170 > > These elsets are confusing. It would appear that #26373 might be the > payload unless a rocket body inserted the payload into GSO. In this > case there should be four pieces. Is #26373 the payload? > > Ron Lee > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' > in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org > http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Phillip S Clark 22 Winterbourne Close Molniya Space Consultancy Hastings Compiler/Publisher, Worldwide Satellite Launches E Sussex TN34 1XG U.K. Specialist in "space archeology" - the older and more obscure the more interesting it is ! --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe from SeeSat-L by sending a message with 'unsubscribe' in the SUBJECT to SeeSat-L-request@lists.satellite.eu.org http://www2.satellite.eu.org/seesat/seesatindex.html
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